Replication kinetics of duck virus enteritis vaccine virus in ducklings immunized by the mucosal or systemic route using real-time quantitative PCR.

A chicken embryo-adapted duck enteritis virus (DEV) strain is the most widely used vaccine against duck virus enteritis (DVE) infection. The kinetics of attenuated DEV vaccine was examined in tissues of ducklings vaccinated by the mucosal or systemic route at 20 days of age and sampled regularly up to 60 days post-vaccination (p.v.). Significant numbers of virus genomes in the lymphoid and other parenchymatous organs were first detected at 60 min p.v., and subsequently rose to peak levels during 90 min to 1 day p.v. independent of the route of vaccine administration. The peak level of vaccine virus in the individual parenchymatous organs of subcutaneously immunized ducklings was significantly higher than that of orally or nasally immunized ducklings. The route of vaccine administration had significant effect on the initial tissue distribution of vaccine virus in respiratory and digestive tracts. Vaccine viruses spread to digestive tract and trachea tissues by mucosal route, i.e. oral and nasal administration, early than that by subcutaneous route. The rapid early increase of vaccine virus levels in all samples examined followed by a steady decline from 90 min to 6 days p.v. The real-time PCR analysis of a variety of tissues is significant for further investigation of the mechanism of vaccinal protection, and the optimization of vaccination regimes.