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The Interaction Between Vitamin A Status and Newcastle Disease Virus Infection in Chickens

S. Reinder Sijtsma^*,,, Clive E. West^*, Jan H. W. M. Rombout and Akke J. Van Der Zijpp

^* Department of Human Nutrition Department of Experimental Animal Morphology and Cell Biology Department of Animal Husbandry, Wageningen Agricultural University, Wageningen, the Netherlands

Newcastle disease virus (NDV) infection in chickens differing in vitamin A status has been selected as a model to examine the interrelationship between marginal vitamin A deficiency and the severity of consequences of measles infection in humans. Day-old chickens with limited vitamin A reserves, the progeny of marginally vitamin A-deficient hens, were fed purified diets containing either marginal (120 retinol equivalents/kg diet, ad libitum) or adequate (1200 retinol equivalents/kg diet, ad libitum or pairfed) levels of vitamin A for a period of 10 wk. At 4 wk of age, half of the chickens in each group were infected intraocularly with the lentogenic, i.e., mildly pathogenic, La Sota strain of NDV. Within 1 wk of infection, plasma retinol levels in the infected, marginally vitamin A-deficient chickens showed a significant and persistent decrease compared to their noninfected counterparts fed the same diet. Moreover, infection with NDV resulted in increased rates of morbidity in the marginally vitamin A-deficient chickens compared with nondeficient chickens. The results of this study indicate that pre-existing marginal vitamin A status increases the severity of disease following NDV infection, and that infection with NDV reduces marginal plasma vitamin A levels to levels which can be regarded as deficient.

KEY WORDS: • vitamin A deficiency • Newcastle disease virus infection • chicken • animal model

Manuscript received 6 July 1988. Revision accepted 2 March 1989.