title: Epidemiology and molecular characterisation of duck hepatitis A virus from different duck breeds in Egypt.
abstract: Duck hepatitis virus (DHV) is an acute highly contagious disease of ducklings caused by three distinct serotypes of duck hepatitis A virus (DHAV), a member of the RNA family Picornaviridae, where serotype 1 is the most widespread serotype worldwide. To date, little if any is known about the prevalence and genetic characterisation of DHAV outside Asia. The current study describes surveillance on DHV in 46 commercial duck farms in Egypt with a history of high mortality in young ducklings from 3 to 15 day-old from 2012 to 2014. Clinical samples were examined by generic RT-PCR assays followed by partial sequence analysis of the 5'UTR, VP1 and 3D genes of the vaccine strain and 15 field viruses. The overall positive rate was 37% (n=17/46). All duck breeds (Pekin, Muscovy, Mallard and Green Winged) were susceptible to the disease with mortality ranged from 15% to 96.7%. Sequence and phylogenetic analyses indicated that the Egyptian strains cluster in the DHAV serotype 1 with Asian viruses and distinguishable from the vaccine strains. So far, this is the first report on the genetic characterisation of DHAV in Egypt. This study may be useful to better understand the epidemiology and evolution of DHAV.
authors: National Laboratory for Veterinary Quality Control on Poultry Production, Animal Health Research Institute, Dokki, P.O. Box 246, Giza 12618, Egypt. Electronic address: ahmed.erfan82@yahoo.com.
authors: Ahmed M
authors: AM
authors: Erfan
authors: National Laboratory for Veterinary Quality Control on Poultry Production, Animal Health Research Institute, Dokki, P.O. Box 246, Giza 12618, Egypt.
authors: Abdullah A
authors: AA
authors: Selim
authors: National Laboratory for Veterinary Quality Control on Poultry Production, Animal Health Research Institute, Dokki, P.O. Box 246, Giza 12618, Egypt.
authors: Mohamed K
authors: MK
authors: Moursi
authors: National Laboratory for Veterinary Quality Control on Poultry Production, Animal Health Research Institute, Dokki, P.O. Box 246, Giza 12618, Egypt.
authors: Soad A
authors: SA
authors: Nasef
authors: National Laboratory for Veterinary Quality Control on Poultry Production, Animal Health Research Institute, Dokki, P.O. Box 246, Giza 12618, Egypt; The Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut - Institute of Molecular Virology and Cell Biology, Suedufer 10, Greifswald Insel-Riems 17493, Germany. Electronic address: sayed.abdel-whab@fli.bund.de.
authors: E M
authors: EM
authors: Abdelwhab
mesh_terms: D020121:5' Untranslated Regions / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding; D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004372:Ducks / Q000145:classification / Q000821:virology; D004534:Egypt / Q000453:epidemiology; D004371:Hepatitis Virus, Duck / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D007668:Kidney / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D010850:Picornaviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality / Q000821:virology*; D015995:Prevalence; D017421:Sequence Analysis / Q000662:veterinary; D013154:Spleen / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology
chemical_list: D020121:5' Untranslated Regions; D036022:Capsid Proteins
keywords: Duck hepatitis A virus; Ducklings; Egypt; Epidemiology; Picornavirus; RT-PCR