Activation of PI3K/Akt resulting in support of virus replication was observed for avian leukosis virus (Feng et al., 2011), whereas Newcastle disease virus also inhibited cell apoptosis and enhanced autophagy (Kang et al., 2017) MDV activation of PI3K/Akt signaling also occurred early in the infection; however, it was observed later compared to RNA viruses such as Newcastle disease virus and avian reovirus and leukosis virus, probably because MDV transmission requires cell-to-cell contact (Favoreel et al., 2005), which delays PI3K/Akt activation. Here, AKT1 is linked to infection.