Introducing B Cell Epitopes of Newcastle Disease Virus Obtained from Domestic Pigeons (Columba livia domestica) as Sub-Unit Vaccine Candidate to Eradicate Newcastle Disease Virus in Poultry

Poultry farm is important commodity in Indonesia. It provides protein source as Indonesian consume varies kind of its product such as meats (chicken, duck and quail) and eggs. In Indonesia, rearing activities were differentiated into three types such as extensive traditional system, semi-intensive system, and intensive system. All these systems have same problem relate to outbreak of viral disease. One of viral disease causes annual outbreak is Newcastle Disease. It is caused by infection of Avian Paramyxovirus serotype 1. It infects varies avian species such as pigeons, ostrich, water fowl, chicken, and cockatoo. Control such as vaccination has been conducted but it could not protect the poultry from Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) infection. It is noted that the protectivity of seed vaccine is influenced by the epitopes generates various protectivity level of the vaccination program. Sub-unit vaccine could become the best choice to protect NDV infection. Molecular analyses were conducted to obtain B cell epitopes which could induce immune system safely. Sample of pigeons (Columba livia) were collected from live bird market in Surabaya. The collected sample showed clinical signs such as respiratory disturbance, limping, loss of appetite and subclinical enteric disturbance/diarrhea. Two out of four samples were serologically confirmed to be infected with NDV (Pigeon/Surabaya/2019/01 and Pigeon/Surabaya/2019/03). Molecular approach was conducted to obtain the nucleotide sequence of the samples. The sequence was employed to epitope analyses by using Kolaskar-Tongaonkar antigenicity and Emini surface accessibility softwares. Obtained epitopes were analyzed using Vaxijen, Allertop, and ToxinPred to confirm that the epitopes are safely to be applied. Peptides were obtained from NDV infecting pigeons were noted has possibility to become seed vaccine candidate. Several peptides were obtained from Pigeon/Surabaya/2019/01 and Pigeon/Surabaya/2019/03; SWVYIHLLSTF, CTNVCLSEIQLLHSFA, VRPCMVIVRL, NLTGRKRRTVG and SDREYSQAIAR passed the in-silico screenings. These epitopes are possibly to be used as sub-unit vaccine to eradicate Newcastle Disease Virus.