Duck plague virus（DPV）is a member of alpha herpesvirus, poses a major threat to waterfowl breeding. The development of distinguishable marker vaccines from natural infection is a key step toward eradicating duck plague. Here, we generated a recombinant DPV that carries an ICP27 deletion marker, which could be easily distinguished from wild-type strain by molecular biological methods. It is highly attenuated in vitro and in vivo, and could provide comparable protection to ducks after a single dose of immunizations as commercial vaccine did. Our findings support the use of the ICP27-deficient virus as a marker vaccine for DPV control and future eradication.

The related research content is titled “A recombinant duck plague virus containing ICP27 deletion marker provides robust protection in ducks” and was published online on Microbiology Spectrum (First District, Chinese Academy of Sciences) owned by American Society for Microbiology (ASM). This research was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province, Earmarked Fund for China Agriculture Research System, Program Sichuan Veterinary Medicine and Drug Innovation Group of the China Agricultural Research System.

Figure. CHv-ΔICP27 protects ducks from virulent DPV challenge.