Mixture of polysaccharide and nucleic acid extracted from Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) enhances immune response of infectious bursal disease virus vaccine in chickens.

In this study, the immune response induced by a mixture of polysaccharide and nucleic acid extracted from Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) was evaluated in chickens inoculated with infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) vaccine. After the mixture was injected intramuscularly at a dose of 0.075, 0.15 or 0.3 mg·kg(-1)·day(-1) for 3 days, the 14-day-old chickens were inoculated with the attenuated IBDV vaccine via intranasal and ocular routes. The relative weight of bursa of Fabricius (BF) and thymus, the serum IBD antibody titer, the CD4+/CD8+ ratio, and the concentrations of IFN-γ, IL-2 and IL-6 in peripheral blood were investigated on days 5, 15 and 25. The IBD antibody titer in BCG-treated groups was higher than in the negative control and only IBD-vaccinated chickens, indicating that the mixture of BCG can significantly enhance chicken humoral response. CD4+/CD8+ and the secretions of IFN-γ, IL-2 and IL-6 were also clearly increased compared with that in the negative control and IBD-vaccinated chickens, indicating that the mixture can also enhance the cell-mediated immune response. The results also showed that the relative weights of BF and thymus increased after chickens were inoculated with BCG, indicating that the BCG mixture can clearly enhance the immunity of IBD-vaccine and can be expected to be viewed as a candidate for a new type of immune adjuvant.