Anti-viral immunity against Marek's disease virus infected chicken kidney cells.

The mechanism of immunity conferred by herpesvirus of turkeys (HVT) was investigated using Marek's disease virus (MDV)-infected chicken kidney cell (CKC) cultures as target cells. Peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) from normal or HVT-vaccinated chickens killed MDV-infected target cells in the presence of anti-MDV or anti-HVT serum, whereas normal lymphocytes and HVT-sensitised lymphocytes themselves had no specific cytotoxic effect. Cell-mediated cytotoxicity of PBL from HVT-vaccinated chicken was exhibited specifically against HVT-infected CKC, and that of PBL from chickens inoculated with MDV was exhibited against MDV-infected CKC. From these results, it was concluded that antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity to MDV-infected cells may contribute to resistance to Marek's disease induced by HVT vaccination.