Host response to Newcastle disease virus challenge in the Harderian gland transcriptome

A unique, lymphoid tissue located adjacent to the eye of the chicken, the Harderian gland is assumed to have critical immune functions, but prior to the current study, its transcriptome had never been analyzed. This study aimed to characterize differential responses between the relatively resistant (Fayoumi) and susceptible (Leghorn) chicken lines when challenged with a high titered lentogenic Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) strain via the eyes and nares at three weeks of age. The Harderian gland was collected from challenged and non-challenged birds from each line at 2, 6, and 10 days-post-infection (dpi) (n=47). High quality RNA was isolated, used for cDNA library construction, and sequenced on the HiSeq2500.