Production of herpesvirus of turkeys in microcarrier culturing system--a new method for production of vaccine against Marek's disease.

A microcarrier (MC) culturing system for production of a vaccine against Marek's disease virus is presented. Cytodex-3 beads (Pharmacia) and DE-53 microgranular (Whatman) are the recommended microcarriers. Primary cells from chick embryo as well as cells from a quail cell line (QT-6, established from a Japanese quail) were found to be good hosts for growth of herpesvirus of turkeys (HVT). HVT, the vaccine strain against Marek's disease, was successfully grown and harvested on the above mentioned MCs and cells. The findings of this study, open new possibilities in the production of HVT for various purposes such as basic research and vaccine preparation.