Knob domain of Fiber 2 protein provides full protection against fowl adenovirus serotype 4

Highly pathogenic fowl adenovirus serotype 4 (FAdV-4) is an acute infectious disease with severe economic impact, causing chicken hepatitis hydropericardium syndrome (HHS) and high mortality. In the present study, we evaluated the immunogenicity of the recombinant Fiber2-knob protein (F2-Knob) as an FAdV-4 candidate subunit vaccine in 14-day-old SPF chickens. The knob domain is the functional region of the viral surface protein Fiber2. The protein was expressed in Escherichia coli and was administered a single immunization with different vaccine doses. The protective efficacy was evaluated by mortality, clinical symptoms, virus shedding and histopathological examinations after challenged with the FAdV-4. The results showed that the level of ELISA antibodies of the chickens immunized with Fiber2-knob protein was significantly higher than that of the chickens immunized with an inactivated vaccine against FAdV-4. The antibody value of the immunized Fiber2-knob protein was positively correlated with the increase in immunization dose. The challenge experiment showed that the F2-Knob protein provided full protection against virulent FAdV-4 challenge and significantly reduced viral shedding. These results suggest that F2-Knob protein could be a novel vaccine candidate provide insights to control FAdV-4.