Phylogenetic diversity of Avian Nephritis Virus in Hungarian chicken flocks

Mira - Mandoki (1) , Tamas Bakonyi (2) , Eva Ivanics (3) , Csaba Nemes (4) , Mihaly Dobos-Kovacs (1) , Miklos Rusvai (5)

1 Department of Pathology & Forensic Veterinary Medicine
2 Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
3 Poultry Diseases
4 Veterinary Institute of Kaposvár
5 Department of Pathology and Veterinary Forensic medicine

Avian nephritis virus (ANV) infection was detected in 4 to 22 days old chickens collected in Hungarian farms between 2002 and 2005. The animals suffered from diarrhea, growth retardation, runting-stunting syndrome; and limited mortality (2-6%) of the flocks was reported. Tubulonephrosis, interstitial nephritis and uricosis (gout) was diagnosed. The presence of ANV RNA was detected in of the chicken carcasses using RT-PCR. The virus was demonstrated in 69% of the investigated farms. The nucleotide sequence of the amplification products was determined and phylogenetic analysis was performed. The nucleotide sequences showed 76 to 86% identity to the reference strain isolated in 1976 in Japan. The constructed phlyogenetic tree indicates high diversity of the Hungarian ANV sequences, regardless their origin and year of sample collection. Analysis of the putative amino acid sequences of the investigated genome region (GP1 partial cds.) also revealed high diversity of the virus. Even samples collected at the same farm, in the same time, but from different flocks differed in nucleotide and putative amino acid sequences. The possible effects of the sequence diversity on the pathogenicity, antigenicity and diagnostics of ANV are discussed.

Mots clés: Life Sciences

Mira - Mandoki, Tamas Bakonyi, Eva Ivanics, Csaba Nemes, Mihaly Dobos-Kovacs, et al.. Phylogenetic diversity of Avian Nephritis Virus in Hungarian chicken flocks. Avian Pathology, 2006, 35 (03), pp.224-229. ⟨10.1080/03079450600711037⟩. ⟨hal-00540045⟩