Infectious bursal disease (IBD) is an acute immunosuppressive disease of young chicks, caused by a doublestranded
RNA virus. VP2 being the major capsid protein of the virus is an ideal vaccine candidate possessing
the neutralizing epitopes. The present study involves the use of flagellin (fliC) as a genetic adjuvant to improve
the immune response of VP2 based DNA vaccine against IBD. Our findings revealed that birds immunized with
plasmid pCIVP2fliC showed robust immune response than pCIVP2 immunized groups. Further, challenge study
proved that genetic fusion of fliC and VP2 can provide a comparatively higher level of protection against vvIBDV
challenge in chickens than VP2 alone. These results thus indicate that Salmonella flagellin could enhance the
immune responses and protection efficacy of a DNA vaccine candidate against IBDV infection in chickens,
highlighting the potential of flagellin as a genetic adjuvant in the prevention of vvIBDV infection.
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