ABSTRACT
Infectious bursal disease (IBD) is another acute, highly contagious infection of young chickens characterised by the destruction of the bursa of Fabricius, the primary lymphoid organ involved in B-cell maturation and differentiation. The major impact of the disease is the immunosuppressive effect, which significantly increases the susceptibility to other infections and interferes with the responses to vaccines (Eterradossi and Saif, 2013). Being caused by the IBD virus (IBDV), a member of the Birnaviridae family, the disease has a worldwide distribution, occurring in almost all poultry-producing areas.
