All of the 16 top DEGs, except ALB and OSTN, were significantly up-regulated in the susceptible line 72 birds in response to MDV challenge, suggesting that the majority of these DEGs, if not all of them, are bound to fail in preventing host susceptibility to MD (Fig 1F) since the line 72 birds are highly susceptible to MD [9,61]. This evidence concerns the gene OSTN and Menkes disease.