Despite vigorous vaccination strategies, infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) is still difficult to control. Optimum protection of young chickens against IBDV strongly depends on the effectiveness of the vaccination programs. Depending on the intrinsic characteristics of the existing vaccines or on the vaccination procedures, some of the current vaccination programs may not induce full protection against IBDV under field conditions. As chickens are most susceptible to IBDV in their first weeks of life, an effective vaccination program has to elicit early active immunity to protect properly against IBDV. Therefore, a fast seroconversion is essential in order to reduce the chances of field IBDV infection during the immunity gap that occurs between the days when maternally derived antibodies are still protective and when active immunity becomes fully protective. Although in-hatchery IBDV vaccines have become popular in some regions, live attenuated IBDV vaccines are still a pillar for protection against IBDV and must be considered in our protection plan to ensure an early effective immunization. They mimic IBDV infection, replicate, spread among the flock and quickly induce both cellular and humoral immunity. During this educational webinar learn about how to design effective vaccination programs against IBDV, the best strategies to minimize the risks of vaccination failures and the benefits of using live attenuated IBDV vaccines. 
This webinar will broadcast at:
- 12:00 PM GMT (London)
- 1:00 PM CET (Berlin)
- 2:00 PM SAST (Cape Town)
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:
- What are the best strategies to control the most common failures in IBD prevention
- How to design vaccination programs which provide early effective protection against IBD
- Which are the advantages of using live attenuated vaccines in the control of IBD
This webinar is sponsored by Elanco and presented by WATT Global Media.
Speaker Info:
Dr. J.J. (Sjaak) De Wit, GD Animal Health, Deventer
Dr. De Wit, DVM, PhD, is a senior scientist of GD, the Dutch Animal Health Service (AHS). de Wit is responsible for the technical aspects and quality system of the poultry serology performed by the AHS (GD Deventer). Among other diseases, he’s also applied scientific work around infectious bronchitis in the areas of virus typing, test development, efficacy trials for vaccines and protectotyping. Dr. De Wit is a founding diplomat of the European College of Veterinary Poultry Science. In 2013, he was inducted as a member of the World Veterinary Poultry Association’s Hall of Honour.
Dr. Guillermo Zavala is the founder of Avian Health International. Dr Zavala holds a DVM and a specialty in poultry production from the University of Mexico; a Master of Science, a Master of Avian Medicine, and a PhD in medical microbiology from the University of Georgia. He has worked in broiler and breeding companies, vaccine companies, one diagnostic laboratory, two academic institutions and as Adjunct Professor at the Department of Population Health, University of Georgia. His field of research is in applied virology (CIAV, IBDV, tumor viruses, ILT, enteric viruses and fowl adenovirus). He has 32 publications in peer-reviewed journals.