The present study aimed to identify genomes of CAV and AGV2
in commercially available avian vaccines. The findings obtained
revealed that genomes of both agents may be detected in poultry
vaccines; the specificity of the detection method was confirmed by
sequence analysis. These results indicate the need to implement
appropriate quality control measures to ensure absence of
contamination of vaccines with such agents. Of eight manufacturer
laboratories from which vaccines were tested, three had one or
more vaccines that contained DNA of either CAV or AGV2, or both.
One of the laboratories (manufacturer D) had the highest number
of contaminated vaccines among those tested; besides, this was the
only manufacturer whose vaccines were found to contain CAV genomes,
besides AGV2 genomes. However, this was the manufacturer
from which the greatest number of vaccines was examined; as
the choice of vaccines was based essentially on the availability of
the products for testing, these proportions may have been biased by
the fact that 20 out of the 35 vaccines tested were from the same
laboratory. Nevertheless, it points out that this particular manufacturer
seems to have a problem of CAV contamination along its
vaccine production line. Regardless, these results do highlight the
need for improving quality control practices to ensure the absence
of such contaminants in all vaccines, particularly those where
embryonated eggs are used as substrate for vaccine production,
since these seem to be the main source of this type of
contamination.