Background

Necrotic enteritis (NE), caused by Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens), is one of the most important diseases of intensively-reared poultry (Prescott et al., 2016). Globally, it is estimated to cost US $ 2 billion annually because of the costs of mortality and morbidity, as well as of prevention in the form of antimicrobial drugs. The disease is controlled mainly by antimicrobial drugs administered at prophylactic doses in water or feed, but such use has been questioned (and banned) because of its potential to select for antimicrobial resistance that might adversely affect human and animal health. In 1999, the European Union banned the use of in-feed antimicrobial growth promoters in food animals, which led to an increase in NE outbreaks in European countries. There is now considerable effort to find alternatives to control NE with one approach being the development of immunization strategies. One of the interests in the Nagy laboratory is to develop and utilize a fowl adenovirus based platform as vectored vaccines to deliver genes coding for immunogenic proteins of other pathogens.

Funding

  $89,076 (AAFC/CPRC $67,076*; NSERC $15,000; Industry $7,000 (In-Kind))