Influence of environmental temperatures on the serologic responses of broiler chickens to inactivated and viable Newcastle disease vaccines.

Commercial and specific-pathogen-free (SPF) nonselected broilers were held at environmental temperatures that simulated the cyclic diurnal extremes for either hot (26.6 C-40.7 C) or moderate (18.3 C-32.3 C) summer temperatures. The chicks received either inactivated or viable La Sota Newcastle vaccines at various times after the initiation of the temperature extremes. When held at moderate temperatures for 7 days and then injected with inactivated vaccine, commercial chicks developed slightly higher but not statistically different levels of antibody compared with chicks held in the hot environment. In one experiment, the geometric mean serologic hemagglutination-inhibition responses of SPF chickens housed at extremely high temperatures for 4 days before being injected with inactivated vaccine were significantly greater (P less than or equal to 0.05) than those held at moderate temperatures. The reverse was apparent for chickens that received live vaccine virus after being in the hot environment for any of several lengths of time before vaccination.