title: Epidemiological and pathological studies of subgroup J avian leukosis virus infections in Chinese local "yellow" chickens.
abstract: Epidemiological, pathological and molecular studies indicate that subgroup J avian leukosis virus (ALV-J) infections are widely spread in "yellow chickens" of local breeds in China. ALV-J induced tumour mortality and the serological conversion rates to ALV-J were very high in some breeder flocks. Typical myelocytomatosis was demonstrated not only in livers, spleens, kidneys, and sternums, as in white meat-type chickens, but also in thymuses and the bursa of Fabricius. Especially, severe myeloid cell infiltration was found throughout the whole enlarged thymuses of some birds. ALV-J was isolated at high positive rates from both liver tumour samples and embryos collected from breeder flocks with tumours. At the same time, reticuloendotheliosis virus was also co-isolated with ALV-J in some tumour samples and embryos. Sequence analysis of env genes demonstrated that the gp85 and gp37 among six ALV-J isolates from "yellow chickens" of Chinese local breeds varied as highly as among ALV-J strains isolated from white meat-type chickens worldwide. But strain GD0512 isolated in 2005 from a "yellow chicken" farm in southern China had high identity of 95.1% for gp85 or 99.5% for gp37 to strain HN0001 isolated in 2000 from a white meat-type breeder farm in northern China, a much higher identity than to other yellow chicken and white chicken strains. This is the first report of the isolation and identification of ALV-J from yellow chickens of Chinese local breeds and also the first report of vertical co-infection of ALV-J and reticuloendotheliosis virus. The significance of co-infection of ALV-J and reticuloendotheliosis virus in pathogenesis is discussed.
authors.affiliation: College of Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian, Peoples Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shuhong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Zhizhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cui
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001353:Avian Leukosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D001354:Avian Leukosis Virus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D002645:Chickens / Q000821:virology*; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D010802:Phylogeny; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology