Molecular epidemiology of chicken anaemia virus in sick chickens in China from 2014 to 2015

PLoS One. 2019 Jan 18;14(1):e0210696. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210696. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Chicken anaemia virus (CAV), a member of the genus Gyrovirus, is the etiological agent of chicken infectious anaemia. CAV infects bone marrow-derived cells, resulting in severe anaemia and immunosuppression in young chickens and a compromised immune response in older birds. We investigated the molecular epidemiology of CAV in sick chickens in China from 2014 to 2015 and showed that the CAV-positive rate was 13.30%, in which mixed infection (55.56%) was the main type of infection. We isolated and identified 15 new CAV strains using different methods including indirect immunofluorescence assay and Western Blotting. We used overlapping polymerase chain reaction to map the whole genome of the strains. Phylogenetic analyses of the obtained sequences and related sequences available in GenBank generated four distinct groups (A-D). We built phylogenetic trees using predicted viral protein (VP) sequences. Unlike CAV VP2s and VP3s that were well conserved, the diversity of VP1s indicated that the new strains were virulent. Our epidemiological study provided new insights into the prevalence of CAV in clinical settings in recent years in China.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Chicken anemia virus / genetics
  • Chicken anemia virus / pathogenicity*
  • Chickens
  • China / epidemiology
  • Circoviridae Infections / epidemiology
  • Circoviridae Infections / virology
  • Molecular Epidemiology
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Poultry Diseases / epidemiology*
  • Poultry Diseases / virology*
  • Viral Proteins / genetics

Substances

  • Viral Proteins

Grants and funding

This research was supported by China Agriculture Research System (CARS-41-G15), http://www.zgrj.org/expert.asp?smallclassname=%B9%A6%C4%DC%D1%D0%BE%BF%CA%D2&SpecialName=%BC%B2%B2%A1%BF%D8%D6%C6%D1%D0%BE%BF%CA%D2, the funding institution was Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, and XMW was the recipient of the fundings. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.