Online workshop on Marek's disease of chickens: global discussion on control strategies for local mitigation
An IVVN member-organised workshop facilitated by the IVVN team.
Marek’s disease (MD) is a common, highly contagious, lymphoproliferative disease of chickens. Despite the control measures of widespread vaccination MD continues to have a significant economic impact on the poultry industry. Although MD vaccines have been very successful at protecting chickens against tumors and mortality, they do not provide sterilizing immunity and vaccinated chickens still support replication and shedding of virulent field viruses. Hence, the Marek’s disease vaccines are regarded as “imperfect” or “leaky.” That is, it protects chickens from developing disease, but doesn’t stop them from becoming infected or from spreading the virus. Consequently, this has made it easier for the most virulent strains to survive.
Congregation of scientific minds on specific theme through the virtual platform is a great opportunity for the eminent experts and industry professionals from different parts of the world to share their views on controlling the most economically important diseases of chicken – Marek’s disease. Sharing the knowledge on the recent trends in the development of vaccines against MD will be useful for the scientific community to have better strategies to control the disease globally.
Programme
The times listed below are shown in Indian Standard Time (IST), or UTC+05:30. The workshop will start at 2:00pm IST – find your local start time here.
| Time (IST) | Title | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 2:00−2:15pm | Welcome address | Dr M Selvaraju Dean, VCRI, TANUVAS, Namakkal |
| 2:15−2:30pm | Tribute to Professor Peter Biggs – pioneer in MDV research | Professor Venugopal Nair The Pirbright Institute, UK |
| 2:30−2:55pm | MDV – a global perspective | Professor Venugopal Nair The Pirbright Institute, UK |
| 2:55−3:00pm | Questions | |
| 3:00−3:25pm | MDV in India | Dr A Raja TANUVAS, India |
| 3:25−3:30pm | Questions | |
| 3:30−3:55pm | Role of exosomes in MDV pathogenesis | Dr M Asok Kumar IVRI, India |
| 3:55−4:00pm | Questions | |
| 4:00−4:25pm | Marek’s disease diagnostics at the Pirbright Institute’s MDV Reference Laboratory | Dr Sue Baigent The Pirbright Institute, UK |
| 4:25−4:30pm | Questions | |
| 4:30−4:55pm | Marek’s disease epidemiology and virus evolution in China | Dr Jun Luo Key Laboratory of Animal Immunology, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, People’s Republic of China |
| 4:55−5:00pm | Questions | |
| 5:00−5:30pm | Tea break | |
| 5:30−5:55pm | Epidemiology and vaccination against Marek’s disease | Dr Dave Kennedy Pennsylvania State University, United States |
| 5:55−6:00pm | Questions | |
| 6:00−6:25pm | New generation recombinant vaccines against Marek’s disease | Dr Michel Bublot Former Head of Vaccine Research, Boehringer Ingelheim, France |
| 6:25−6:30pm | Questions | |
| 6:30−7:30pm | Panel discussion on MD and its control strategies between field veterinarians, researchers, vaccine manufacturers and pharma industry to cover the challenges in disease control and the Marek’s disease research. | |
| 7:30−7:35pm | Valedictory | |