Molecular characterisation of infectious bursal disease viruses isolated in recent acute outbreaks in Slovenia

In 2004 and then in 2006 several outbreaks of infectious bursal disease (IBD) were reported in broiler and broiler breeder flocks in Slovenia. In this report ten recently emerged IBD viruses (IBDV) were characterised by sequence analysis of the VP2 hypervariable region and compared to previous Slovene IBDV strains from 1995/1996 and to some representative serotype 1 IBDV strains of different pathotypes. On the basis of nucleotide and amino acid identities, phylogenetic analyses and the presence of very virulent IBDV (vvIBDV) conserved amino acid substitutions, all Slovene isolates from recent outbreaks were identified as vvIBDV. Although some unique nucleotide exchanges and amino acid substitutions have been observed, the results of this study indicated that recent vvIBDV isolates are closely related with those from outbreaks in the 1990s. However, acute IBD has not been reported in commercial flocks in Slovenia for some years. This could lead to the conclusion that poor biosecurity and relaxed vaccination could be responsible for the re-emergence of vvIBDV.     

Very Virulent Infectious Bursal Disease Virus in Egypt: Epidemiology,Isolation and Immunogenicity of Classic Vaccine

Infectious bursal disease (IBD) is still a significant threat facing the Egyptian poultry industry. In this study, eight very virulent IBD viruses (vvIBDV), originating from acute IBD outbreaks recorded in lower and upper Egypt, were studied with respect to their ability to replicate in cell culture, antigenicity and immunogenicity of classic vaccine. Six continuous cell lines and one primary cell culture were tested for replication of the vvIBDVs. None of the vvIBDV isolates could be adapted to BGM-70, Vero, BHK, RK-13 or MDBK cell lines or chicken embryo fibroblast cells after six blind passages. Serological typing with three neutralizing monoclonal antibodies showed antigenic variation among vvIBDVs. The immunogenicity induced by graded doses of classic-intermediate vaccine in both IBD-resistant (Mandarah) and susceptible (Gimmizah) Egyptian chickens was investigated. The protection of the tested doses was evaluated by measurement of the serological response and resistance to vvIBDV challenge 10 days post vaccination. Similar antibody responses to the vaccine were generated over a wide (100-fold) dose range. It was concluded that single vaccination, by eye drops, with classic-intermediate vaccine (1 x) could protect chickens against clinical disease and mortality. However, the immune responses generated by 1 x, 10 x or 100 x vaccine doses did not protect against bursal damage following challenge. This finding points to the highly invasive nature of the prevailing vvIBDVs in Egypt.     

Diversity of genome segment B from infectious bursal disease viruses in the United States

Several phylogenetic lineages of the infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) genome segment B have been identified. Although this genome segment has been shown to contribute to virulence, little is known about the genetic lineages that exist in the United States. The nucleotide genome segment B sequences of 67 IBDV strains collected from 2002 to 2011 in the United States were examined. Although they were from nine different states, a majority (47) of these viruses were from California. A 722-base pair region near the 5' end of genome segment B, starting at nucleotide 168 and ending at 889, was examined and compared to sequences available in GenBank. The nucleotide sequence alignment revealed that mutations were frequently observed and that they were uniformly spaced throughout the region. When the predicted amino acids were aligned, amino acids at positions 145, 146, and 147 were found to change frequently. Six different amino acid triplets were observed and the very virulent (vv) IBDV strains (based on presence of vvIBDV genome segment A sequence) all had the triplet T145, D146, and N147. None of the non-vvIBDV strains had this TDN triplet. Phylogenetic analysis of the 67 nucleotide sequences revealed four significant genome segment B lineages among the U.S. viruses. One of these included the genome segment B typically found in vvIBDV and three contained non-vvIBDV genome segment B sequences. When the available sequences in GenBank were added to the analysis, two additional lineages were observed that did not contain U.S. viruses; one included viruses from China and the other contained viruses from the Ivory Coast. Although the samples tested do not represent all poultry producing regions in the United States, serotype 1 viruses from states outside California all belonged to one genome segment B lineage. The other three lineages observed in the United States were populated with viruses exclusively found in California, except the serotype 2 lineage, where the type strain was a serotype 2 virus from Ohio. The data provide further evidence for the importance of genome segment B identification during routine molecular diagnosis of all IBDV strains.     

Sequence analysis of the VP2 hypervariable region of eight very virulent infectious bursal disease virus isolates from the northeast of China

Nucleotide sequences of the VP2 gene of eight infectious bursal disease viruses isolated from vaccinated chicken flocks in the northeast of China were determined. The sequence analysis showed that all of the isolates were also characterized by the vvIBDV conserved amino acid residues: 222A, 256I, 294I, and 299S. Four of them had one amino acid change (D-->N) at position 212 in VP2 major hydrophilic peak A, while two of the four isolates had another one (A-->V) at position 321 in major hydrophilic peak B. The other isolates were similar to the UK661 strain. Our findings demonstrated that the vvlBDV strains in the northeast of China could be diverse.     

Biological properties of a naturally attenuated infectious bursal disease virus isolated from a backyard chicken flock

The biological properties of an infectious bursal disease (IBD) virus isolated from bursas collected during an outbreak in a village chicken flock in Macedonia are described. The mortality rate was 50%. Two viruses coexisted in the bursas of infected chickens (IBDVwt and IBDVtc). The virus termed IBDVtc grows on chicken embryo fibroblast (CEF) cells from the first passage. Specific pathogen free chickens inoculated with IBDVtc at passage level 4 did not develop any clinical signs of disease. Some discrete bleeding on the leg muscles was seen and the bursa of Fabricius revealed pathological lesions similar to those caused by classical strains. However, the bursa recovered quickly (bursa lesion score 2) by 14 days post infection (PI). We also found evidence of bursal repopulation by means of perinuclear antigen staining. Strong CD3 influx was evident at 4 days PI, and at 33 days PI the CD3+ cell finding was comparable to the control. The mean antibody titre was 9.2 log 2 at 14 days PI. The amino acid composition of VP2 in IBDVwt (222 Ala, 242 Ile, 253 Gln, 256 Ile, 279 Asp, 284 Ala, 294 Ile and 299 Ser) is described. The same sequence was found in IBDVtc, except for two point mutations, at Gln253→His and Ala284→Thr. Such amino acid substitution is responsible for partial attenuation and the ability of the strain to replicate in cell culture. None of the commercial vaccine viruses has a similar arrangement of amino acids in the variable domain of IBDV. This strongly suggests that IBDVtc originates from a very virulent strain. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a concomitant infection of chickens with highly pathogenic IBDV and its mutant counterpart.     

传染性法氏囊病超强毒Gx株VP3基因在病毒致弱过程中的变异研究

利用SPF鸡胚对鸡传染性法氏囊病超强毒vvIBDV Gx株进行培育，通过鸡胚成纤维细胞对病毒进行传代致弱，对其结构蛋白VP3基因核苷酸及推导的氨基酸序列进行分析，从而揭示vvIBDV Gx从超强毒力向弱毒力转化过程中基因的序列变化规律。对不同代次细胞毒序列分析的结果表明，细胞毒在第8代以前，VP3基因序列没有改变，与标准超强毒HK46株氨基酸同源性达99％以上；细胞毒第9代核苷酸和氨基酸序列发生了改变；10代毒VP3基因与标准弱毒P2株氨基酸序列同源性达100％；细胞适应毒传至20代，其VP3基因序列不再改变。从而说明，vvIBDV Gx株在致弱过程中，VP3基因也随之改变。