For the past 20 years intensification of the poultry industries in the EU and North American and expansion in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, have led to the emergence of new diseases and more virulent forms of infections that were considered to be under control in the mid-1970's.

Scientists at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are working to decipher the genomes of several nonvirulent Marek's disease (MDV) vaccine strains, in order to identify how to best fight virulent and other infectious strains of the disease.

US researchers are now making use of a chicken genome sequence to develop vaccines to fight Marek's disease, which costs the poultry industry US$1 bln a year worldwide.

US President George W. Bush's proposed 2009 fiscal year federal budget would eliminate two USDA labs that play a vital role in poultry research, providing invaluable services to the poultry industry.