Modification of low virulent Newcastle disease virus infection in chickens infected with reticuloendotheliosis virus.

One-day-old SPF chicks were inoculated with reticuloendotheliosis virus (REV) which had been isolated from contaminated Marek's disease vaccine. Then they were subjected to super infection with the B1 or TCND strain of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and examined for virus recovery, antibody response and the appearance of symptoms. Regardless of the time, from 0 to 8 weeks, of inoculation with the NDV-B1 strain after the REV infection, the antibody response was suppressed and the duration of the NDV recovery prolonged. Specific death preceded by severe respiratory or neural signs occurred more frequently to chicks inoculated with REV than to uninoculated controls after inoculation with the NDV-B1 strain in the neonatal stage or with the NDV-TCND strain at 5 weeks of age.