A BASIC LABORATORY MANUAL for THE SMALL-SCALE PRODUCTION AND TESTING OF I-2 NEWCASTLE DISEASE VACCINE

Abstract

Chickens are susceptible to many infectious diseases. One of the most important of these is the viral disease known as Newcastle disease, which causes devastating losses in both commercial and village chickens. Reducing losses of large numbers of village chickens to virulent Newcastle disease is an essential first step to improving their productivity. Newcastle disease can be controlled by the use of vaccines. However, many Newcastle disease vaccines deteriorate after storage for one or two hours at room temperature, making them unsuitable for use in villages where the vaccine may need to be transported for hours or in some cases days at ambient temperature. The I-2 Newcastle disease vaccine is more robust and therefore does not deteriorate as quickly as traditional vaccines. This manual summarizes the basic laboratory procedures used to produce and test experimental I-2 thermostable Newcastle disease vaccine in the research and training programmes associated with the John Francis Virology Laboratory.