Pathogenicity of attenuated infectious bronchitis viruses for oviducts of chickens exposed in ovo

A fixed effects, completely randomized factorial design was used to study the effect of infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) inoculation at two different exposure ages and three postinoculation (PI) durations on chick oviduct pathology. Maternal antibody-positive chicken embryos at 18 days of embryonation (ED) and newly hatched chicks were inoculated with an IBV vaccine (V-IBV) or with an IBV vaccine that had been serially passaged 21 times in chick kidney tissue culture (P-IBV). Hatchability of eggs inoculated with V-IBV at 18 ED was significantly lower (27%) than eggs that were not inoculated with IBV or were inoculated with P-IBV (45-58%, P < 0.01). Chicks from all treatment groups survived to 5 days after hatch. Pathologic changes in the oviduct were evaluated at 9, 18, and 27 days PI by light microscopy. Inoculation of V-IBV and P-IBV in the presence of maternal antibodies did not result in any oviduct pathology at 9, 18, and 27 days PI. Respiratory clinical signs, however, were observed in 61% and 5% of chicks inoculated with V-IBV at 18 ED and at hatch, respectively. Respiratory clinical signs were not observed in control birds, birds inoculated with P-IBV at 18 ED, or birds inoculated with P-IBV at hatch.