Isolation and Metagenomic Identification of Avian Leukosis Virus Associated with Mortality in Broiler Chicken.
Avian leukosis virus (ALV) belongs to the family Retroviridae and causes considerable economic losses to the poultry industry. Following an outbreak associated with high mortality in a broiler flock in northern part of Malaysia, kidney tissues from affected chickens were submitted for virus isolation and identification in chicken embryonated egg and MDCK cells. Evidence of virus growth was indicated by haemorrhage and embryo mortality in egg culture. While viral growth in cell culture was evidenced by the development of cytopathic effects. The isolated virus was purified by sucrose gradient and identified using negative staining transmission electron microscopy. Further confirmation was achieved through next-generation sequencing and nucleotide sequence homology search. Analysis of the viral sequences using the NCBI BLAST tool revealed 99-100% sequence homology with exogenous ALV viral envelope protein. Phylogenetic analysis based on partial envelope sequences showed the Malaysian isolate clustered with Taiwanese and Japanese ALV strains, which were closer to ALV subgroup J, ALV subgroup E, and recombinant A/E isolates. Based on these findings, ALV was concluded to be associated with the present outbreak. It was recommended that further studies should be conducted on the molecular epidemiology and pathogenicity of the identified virus isolate.
Department of Veterinary Pathology and Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia; Department of Veterinary Services, Ministry of Animal Health and Fisheries Development, PMB 2109, Usman Faruk Secretariat, Sokoto 840221, Sokoto State, Nigeria.
Faruku
0000-0003-1526-4028
F
Bande
Department of Veterinary Pathology and Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
Siti Suri
0000-0001-8357-4701
SS
Arshad
Department of Veterinary Pathology and Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia; Laboratory of Vaccine and Immunotherapeutic, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
Abdul Rahman
0000-0001-7379-0507
AR
Omar