Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) Products

Newcastle disease is a highly contagious bird disease affecting many domestic and wild avian species, most notably in domestic poultry. Newcastle disease is caused by Newcastle disease virus (NDV) a negative sense single stranded RNA virus. Transmission occurs by exposure to fecal and other excretions from infected birds. Exposure to humans can cause mild conjunctivitis and influenza like symptoms, but otherwise causes no hazard to health. NDV has the potential to be used as an anti-cancer agent. There are many different strains of NDV, and they have been classified as either lytic or nonlytic for human cells. Lytic strains and nonlytic strains both appear to replicate much more efficiently in human cancer cells than they do in most normal human cells, however, both classifications of NDV have the ability to selectively kill human tumor cells with limited toxicity to normal cells.