Vaccination of chickens with a recombinant fowlpox virus containing the hemagglutinin-neuraminidase gene of Newcastle disease virus under the control of the fowlpox virus thymidine kinase promoter.

When chickens were vaccinated with a recombinant fowlpox virus (FPV) containing the Newcastle disease virus (NDV) hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) cDNA under the control of the thymidine kinase (TK) promoter and inserted into the FPV TK gene, the FPV antibody response to the recombinant virus was similar to the response to vaccination with standard FPV, and the recombinant virus protected chickens against challenge with virulent FPV. While the presence of the NDV HN cDNA was demonstrated in the recombinant virus, which was stable on serial passage, expression of HN was not detected by hemagglutination, Western blot analysis or immunoprecipitation of infected cell lysate. Chickens vaccinated with the recombinant virus failed to mount an NDV hemagglutination-inhibition antibody response, and they did not resist challenge with velogenic NDV. It was concluded that the TK promoter was too weak to drive the HN gene, but that the insertion into the FPV TK gene did not reduce the immunogenicity of the virus.