Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Acute exacerbation of COPD (AE-COPD) in patients are mostly due to respiratory infection and are associated with an inexorable decline in lung function, enhanced oedema as well as airway and systemic inflammation. Previous results show that treatment with anti-IL-20Rb blocking antibodies increased the bacterial clearance in control mice infected by S. pneumoniae and protected CS-exposed mice from bacterial infection, by decreasing the bacterial burden and the inflammatory infiltrate. Therefore there is an interest for generating monoclonal antibodies specific for IL-20Rb with a neutralizing activity for their use in the treatment of AE-COPD. The present invention fulfills this need by providing antibodies having specificity for IL-20Rb.