Production of IgY in egg yolk of Gallus gallus Domesticus by oral vaccination and its characterization with outer membrane of Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale.

Abstract

Chicken respiratory disease "Ornithobacteriosis" caused by Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale (ORT) badly affect the poultry industry. In this study, ORT was isolated from chicken tracheal samples by streaking on 5 % sheep blood agar plates and characterized by morphological analysis, biochemical tests and identification by species specific PCR amplification of 16S rRNA gene. Characterized ORT was cultured, fixed with formalin and mixed with the normal feed to be used as oral vaccine to egg laying hens for 10 days. After oral vaccination, anti-ORT IgY antibodies were extracted from eggs using PEG precipitation method. The IgY antibodies were further characterized by Native-PAGE, SDS-PAGE, ELISA and Western blot analysis. The successful production of IgY antibodies in eggs and interaction of IgY antibodies with outer membrane of ORT as antigen revealed that this oral vaccine can be used to induce humoral immunity in chickens against ORT. Furthermore, these developed anti-ORT antibodies could be used for the diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in the poultry industry. This oral vaccination technique can be translated to develop egg yolk antibodies against pathogenic bacteria in humans.