Acta Veterinaria Hungarica 63 (4), pp. 401–412 (2015) DOI: 10.1556/004.2015.038 0236-6290/$ 20.00 © 2015 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest EVALUATION OF SALMONELLA GALLINARUM GHOST FORMULATED WITH MONTANIDE TM ISA 70 VG ADJUVANT AS A VACCINE AGAINST FOWL TYPHOID Chetan V. JAWALE, Nithiphonh SOMSANITH, Seong Kug EO, Sang-Youel PARK and John Hwa LEE * Department of Bioactive Material Sciences, and Department of Veterinary Public Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju 561-756, Korea (Received 2 February 2015; accepted 22 June 2015) Escherichia coli heat-labile enterotoxin B subunit (LTB) protein is a po- tent adjuvant. Salmonella Gallinarum ghosts carrying LTB (S. Gallinarum-LTB ghosts) were genetically constructed using a plasmid, pJHL187-LTB, designed for the co-expression of the LTB and E lysis proteins. This study evaluates the immunopotentiating effects of Montanide TM ISA 70 VG on S. Gallinarum-LTB ghost vaccination against fowl typhoid. Five-week-old layer chickens were in- jected intramuscularly with sterile PBS (non-immunised control, Group A), S. Gallinarum-LTB ghost (Group B) or S. Gallinarum-LTB ghost emulsified with Montanide TM ISA 70 VG adjuvant (Group C). Chickens from both Groups B and C showed significant induction of antigen-specific systemic IgG response com- pared to controls; in addition, Group C showed enhanced induction of systemic IgG response compared to Group B. We observed significant induction of anti- gen-specific lymphocyte proliferative response and increased mRNA levels of Th1 cytokines (IFN-γ and IL2) in both Groups B and C. Furthermore, in the chal- lenge experiment with a virulent strain of S. Gallinarum, Group C showed higher survival rates compared with other groups. These results indicate that vaccination with the S. Gallinarum-LTB ghost in combination with Montanide TM ISA 70 VG may enhance the protective immunity against fowl typhoid. Key words: Fowl typhoid, bacterial ghost, Montanide TM adjuvant, immu- nity, protection Fowl typhoid (FT) is a septicaemic disease of domestic birds caused by the Gram-negative intracellular bacterial pathogen, Salmonella enterica serovar Gallinarum (Pomeroy and Nagaraja, 1991). Vaccination is the most effective and practical intervention for the eradication of fowl typhoid and lacks the risks and challenges associated with other control measures. Various vaccines to prevent fowl typhoid have been tested in fowl models (Bouzoubaa et al., 1989; Zhang- Barber et al., 1998; Rosu et al., 2007; Chaudhari et al., 2011; Desin et al., 2013). * Corresponding author; E-mail: johnhlee@jbnu.ac.kr; Phone: 0082 (63) 270-2553; Fax: 0082 (63) 270-3780