title: Genotypic and pathotypic characterization of Newcastle disease virus isolated from racing pigeons in China.
abstract: A Newcastle disease virus (NDV) isolated from an outbreak in racing pigeons in China was characterized in this study. Complete gene of the NDV isolate was sequenced and phylogenetic analysis. Pathogenicity experiment was carried out in pigeons, chickens, and ducks. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the strain clustered with the Class II viruses, has highly phylogenetically similar to NDV strains isolated from pigeons in China, but was distant from the viruses prevalence in chickens and vaccine strains used in China. The deduced amino acid sequence of the cleavage site of the fusion (F) protein confirmed that the isolate contained the virulent motif (112)RRQKRF(117) at the cleavage site, but it caused no appearance disease in chickens and ducks. However, the isolate had virulence in pigeons, resulting in severe nervous signs and highly mortality. Pigeons were considered as a potential source of NDV infection and disease for commercial poultry flocks. Therefore, new vaccines to prevent the NDV infection in the pigeon flocks should be developed as soon as possible, and strict biosecurity measures should be taken to reduce the risk of pigeon Newcastle disease outbreaks.
authors: Key Laboratory of Animal Epidemiology and Zoonosis, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
authors: Mengda
authors: M
authors: Liu
authors: College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian 271018, China.
authors: Yajin
authors: Y
authors: Qu
authors: College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian 271018, China.
authors: Fangkun
authors: F
authors: Wang
authors: College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian 271018, China.
authors: Sidang
authors: S
authors: Liu
authors: Key Laboratory of Animal Epidemiology and Zoonosis, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China shlei668@163.com.
authors: Honglei
authors: H
authors: Sun
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002681:China; D010856:Columbidae; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009521:Newcastle Disease / Q000821:virology*; D009522:Newcastle disease virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity* / Q000502:physiology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein; D014774:Virulence
keywords: Newcastle disease virus; pathology; phylogenetic analysis; racing pigeon