ABSTRACT
We describe the emergence of a nephropathogenic avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) with a novel genotype in India. The Indian IBV isolate exhibited a relatively high degree of sequence divergence with reference strains. The highest homology was observed with strain 6/82 (68%) and the least homology with strain Mex/1765/99 (34.3%).
Subject(s)
Communicable Diseases, Emerging/veterinary , Disease Outbreaks , Infectious bronchitis virus/classification , Kidney/virology , Poultry Diseases/epidemiology , Animals , Chickens , Communicable Diseases, Emerging/epidemiology , Communicable Diseases, Emerging/virology , Coronavirus Infections/epidemiology , Coronavirus Infections/veterinary , Coronavirus Infections/virology , Genotype , India/epidemiology , Infectious bronchitis virus/genetics , Infectious bronchitis virus/isolation & purification , Infectious bronchitis virus/pathogenicity , Poultry Diseases/virologyABSTRACT
Recent declines in the populations of three species of vultures in the Indian subcontinent are among the most rapid ever recorded in any bird species. Evidence from a previous study of one of these species, Gyps bengalensis, in the Punjab province of Pakistan, strongly implicates mortality caused by ingestion of residues of the veterinary non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac as the major cause of the decline. We show that a high proportion of Gyps bengalensis and G. indicus found dead or dying in a much larger area of India and Nepal also have residues of diclofenac and visceral gout, a post-mortem finding that is strongly associated with diclofenac contamination in both species. Hence, veterinary use of diclofenac is likely to have been the major cause of the rapid vulture population declines across the subcontinent.
