Development, characterization and optimization of a new suspension chicken-induced pluripotent cell line for the production of Newcastle disease vaccine

Traditionally, substrates for production of viral poultry vaccines have been embryonated eggs or adherent primary cell cultures. The difficulties and cost involved in scaling up these substrates in cases of increased demand have been a limitation for vaccine production. Here, we assess the ability of a newly developed chicken-induced pluripotent cell line, BA3, to support replication and growth of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) LaSota vaccine strain. The characteristics and growth profile of the cells were also investigated. BA3 cells could grow in suspension in different media to a high density of up to 7.0 × 10⁶ cells/mL and showed rapid proliferation with doubling time of 21 h. Upon infection, a high virus titer of 1.02 × 10⁸ EID₅₀/mL was obtained at 24 h post infection using a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 5. In addition, the cell line was shown to be free of endogenous and exogenous Avian Leukosis viruses, Reticuloendotheliosis virus, Fowl Adenovirus, Marek's disease virus, and several Mycoplasma species. In conclusion, BA3 cell line is potentially an excellent candidate for vaccine production due to its highly desirable industrially friendly characteristics of growing to high cell density and capability of growth in serum free medium.