Molecular characterization of Infectious bronchitis virus in Southwestern China for the protective efficacy evaluation of four live vaccine strains

ABSTRACT

Avian infectious bronchitis (IB) is one of the acute and highly contagious upper respiratory tract infectious diseases in poultry caused by the Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), which significantly affects the health and development of world poultry farming industry. IBV RNA polymerase lacks a complete correctional function and is prone to gene mutation and RNA-RNA recombination during the replication process, resulting in the emergence of new serotypes, genotypes and mutant strains. The continuous generation of recombinant strains through homologous recombination between strains also complicates the prevention and control of IB. Therefore, monitoring the genetic evolutionary characteristics of circulating strains and evaluating the protective effect of commonly used vaccines against local circulating strains of IBV are the keys to preventing and controlling this disease.