Protective efficacy in farmed ducks of a duck enteritis virus-vectored vaccine against H5N1, H5N6, and H5N8 avian influenza viruses

Ducks play a key role in the maintenance and spread of avian influenza viruses (AIVs) in nature, and control of AIVs in ducks has important implications for AIV eradication from poultry. We previously constructed a recombinant duck enteritis virus (DEV), rDEVus78HA, that expresses the HA gene of an H5N1 AIV and showed that rDEVus78HA immunization provides complete protection against both DEV and H5N1 AIV challenge in specific-pathogen-free ducks. In this study, we performed a 60-week clinical trial and found that this rDEVus78HA vaccine can function as a bivalent vaccine in farmed ducks against lethal challenge with DEV and H5N1 virus. Moreover, we found that rDEVus78HA-vaccinated ducks were efficiently protected against challenges with recently isolated heterologous H5N6 and H5N8 viruses. Our results demonstrate that rDEVus78HA could be extremely valuable for the control of DEV and H5 AIVs in ducks.