Commercial Development Of A Sustainable

Marek's disease vaccines are the most widely used vaccines in the poultry industry. Since there are nosustainable cell lines suitable for propagating Marek's disease virus (MDV), the MDV vaccine industryuses primary chicken embryo fibroblasts (CEF) for production of vaccine virus. CEFs constitute asignificant proportion of the total cost of MDV vaccine production. Therefore, a significant reductionin MDV vaccine production costs could be realized if a continuous cell line suitable for vaccineproduction were established.Through this Phase I proposal, continuous cell lines, developed by Origen Inc., will be evaluated forMDV vaccine production. Our cell lines, infected with vaccine strains of MDV, are non-malignant andcontact-inhibited. MDV is stably maintained in the cells and the infected cells grow continuously.Upon contact-inhibition, cytopathic effect from MDV infection becomes apparent and infectious virusis produced. High filter stocks produced by these cells can fully protect poultry against Marek'sdisease.Completion of experiments outlined in this proposal will further enhance the commercial value of ourcell lines for producing MDV vaccines and genetic engineered MDV vaccines. Our cell lines offer asignificant reduction in costs associated with MDV vaccine production, greatly benefiting the poultryindustry and consumers.