Isolation and genomic characterization of chicken infectious anemia virus in Jiangsu province of China during 2020-2022

Jun Zhang; Li Ma; Tuofan Li; Quan Xie; Zhimin Wan; Aijian Qin; Jianqiang Ye; Hongxia Shao; Shengnan Wang

doi:10.3389/fvets.2024.1378120

Isolation and genomic characterization of chicken infectious anemia virus in Jiangsu province of China during 2020-2022

Front Vet Sci. 2024 Mar 14:11:1378120. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1378120. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Jun Zhang^{1

2

3}, Li Ma^{1

2

3}, Tuofan Li^{1

2

3}, Quan Xie^{1

2

3}, Zhimin Wan^{1

2

3}, Aijian Qin^{1

2

3

4}, Jianqiang Ye^{1

2

3

4}, Hongxia Shao^{1

2

3

4}, Shengnan Wang^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Jiangsu Preventive Veterinary Medicine, Key Laboratory for Avian Preventive Medicine, Ministry of Education, College of Veterinary Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.
² Jiangsu Co-Innovation Center for Prevention and Control of Important Animal Infectious Diseases and Zoonoses, Yangzhou, China.
³ Joint International Research Laboratory of Agriculture and Agri-Product Safety, The Ministry of Education of China, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.
⁴ Institutes of Agricultural Science and Technology Development, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.

Abstract

As an immunosuppressive disease virus, chicken infectious anemia virus (CIAV) mainly infects chickens, causing aplastic anemia and systemic lymphoid tissue atrophy. In recent years, the prevalence of CIAV in the poultry industry globally has caused huge economic losses. In this study, a total of 223 clinical samples, including anal swabs, tissues, blood, and vaccines, were collected from 19 broiler farms or breeding companies in Jiangsu province, with symptoms of significant anemia and immunosuppression during 2020-2022. Among them, 75 samples (75/223, 33.6%) were positive for CIAV in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, and 20 CIAV strains were successfully isolated. The phylogenetic trees of the 20 isolates and 42 CIAV strains deposited in GenBank formed four distinct groups (A-D). And the isolates mainly belonged to Group A but with high genetic diversity. Analysis for VP1 indicated that these isolates possess key characteristics of highly pathogenic strains. Meanwhile, VP2 and VP3 were much conserved with much fewer mutations compare to VP1. The above epidemiological study of CIAV provides novel insights into molecular characterization of CIAV and lays the foundation for developing efficient strategies for control of CIAV in China.

Keywords: VP1; chicken infectious anemia virus (CIAV); complete genome; isolation; molecular characteristics.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported by the National Key Research & Development (R&D) Plan (2022YFD1800301), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31872491), the Research Foundation for Talented Scholars in Yangzhou University and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.