Abstract
Novel approaches to vaccination against very virulent (vv) strains of Marek's disease virus (MDV) are discussed. Fowlpox virus (FPV) and herpesvirus of turkeys (HVT) recombinants expressing MDV antigens have been constructed. It has been shown that glycoprotein B of MDV serotype 1 (gB1) is an effective immunogen which is particularly important for conferring protective immunity in genetically susceptible chickens. However, maternal antibodies against MDV diminished the efficacy of vaccination with recombinant FPV‐gB1. HVT recombinants expressing antigens of MDV and Newcastle disease virus have been constructed and have been shown to be effective in preventing Marek's disease as well as systemic Newcastle disease. Maternal antibodies against MDV and Newcastle disease virus did not affect significantly the efficacy of vaccination with cell‐associated HVT recombinants. The potential of retroviral insertion mutagenesis and other means of delivering MDV antigens for immunization are discussed.

This publication has 44 references indexed in Scilit: