EC Microbiology

Marek’s disease (MD) caused by a highly contagious, cell-associated, oncogenic herpesvirus, causes malignant lymphomas in chickens. It has been grown in many types of chicken cell cultures, the isolation of Marek’s disease virus (MDV) was performed in chick embryo liver (CEL), chick kidney (CK), and chick embryo fibroblast (CEF) cell cultures and by direct method, we used infected liver as cell culture. The cytopathic effect in different cell cultures was essentially similar. It consisted of grape-like clusters of refractile cells with syncytia. Giemsa-stained cell cultures revealed intranuclear inclusion bodies.

 Keywords: Marek Disease; Herpesvirus; Cell Culture; Khartoum State

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