Evaluation of factors influencing the development of late Marek's disease virus-induced immunosuppression: virus pathotype and host sex.

Marek's disease virus (MDV) is a herpesvirus that induces lymphoma and immunosuppression in chickens. MDV-induced immunosuppression (MDV-IS) is complex and can be divided into two phases: early-MDV-IS associated with cytolytic infection in the lymphoid organs in chickens lacking maternal antibodies against MDV (MAbs) and late-MDV-IS that appears later in the pathogenesis and occurs even in chickens bearing MAbs. We have recently developed a model to reproduce late-MDV-IS under laboratory conditions.