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To determine whether there is any abnormalities of the p53 gene in chicken lymphoblastoid tumor cell lines derived from Marek's disease (MD), lymphoid leukosis, reticuloendotheliosis, and field tumors, some portions of p53 cDNA corresponding to core and C-terminal domains (nucleotide positions 277-1104 in the p53 open reading frame (ORF)) were sequenced. Several mutations were identified in both cell lines and field tumors. However, none of these mutations is localized at the "hot spot", which has been reported as the site for transformation-activating mutations. Moreover, partial cDNA clones with a 122-bp deletion in the p53 ORF were identified in two cell lines, MSB1 and MTB1 derived from MD tumors. Southern blot analysis showed that no deletion occurred in the genome of p53 in MSB1, indicating that deletion occurred at the transcriptional level. This deletion could cause a frame shift of the encoding p53 protein, possibly resulting in the generation of a functionally different p53 protein. However, we confirmed that p53 mRNA without deletion is also present in each of these cell lines. These mutations of the p53 gene and deletion in the p53 transcript may be ones of molecular changes specific to the transformation induced by MD virus.

Over a period from spring to fall in 1974, a disease with delayed growth, anemia, abnormal feathers, and leg paralysis as main symptoms broke out in flocks of chickens inoculated with Marek's disease vaccine. A virus was isolated from affected birds in the field and the same lot of Marek's disease vaccine as inoculated into these birds. It had a common antigenicity to the T strain of reticuloendotheliosis virus (REV) and could not be discriminated from this strain on the basis of morphology or property. When chicks were inoculated with it, they presented essentially the same symptoms as the birds affected in the field. Since the disease was reproduced in this manner, it was presumed to have been caused by REV contained in the vaccine as contaminant. The virus persisted in the body for long time and also induced horizontal infection.

Two-day-old chicks were inoculated with one or ten doses of Marek's disease (MD) vaccine originated from the herpesvirus of turkeys (HVT) and contaminated with a reticuloendotheliosis virus (REV). As a result, they presented such symptoms as abnormality in the vane of remiges, undergrowth, anemia, and leg paralysis. These symptoms were the same as those induced by the same vaccine among chicks in the field. Control chicks which had been placed in the same house as those inoculated with the vaccine exhibited no abnormal signs. A persistent infection with REV was noticed in the vaccine-inoculated group. A horizontal infection with REV was the highest in the control group, which was followed by the group inoculated with one dose and that inoculated with ten doses in the order listed. The antibody response of chicks to HVT and MD virus was also inhibited by REV.