Marek’s disease virus (MDV) is a highly contagious herpesvirus which induces T-cell lymphoma in chickens. Despite forty years of vaccination, the virus is still spreading and becoming increasingly virulent. Thus, it is important to better understand the replication and pathogenicity of MDV. New mutant viruses have been developed to help study the infection process better; however, infections by these mutant viruses can only be characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). While standard procedures have been long established for the preparation of tissue culture samples for TEM, standardized procedures for live samples, such as feather follicles, are more difficult and less common. The presentation will discuss the efforts made towards effectively optimizing the preparation conditions of MDV-infected feather follicles and consequently the identification of infected cells.

Optimizing preparation conditions of live MDV infected samples for transmission electron microscopy

251st National Meeting (2016)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.