Complete genome sequence analysis of duck circovirus strains from Cherry Valley duck.

To investigate molecular epidemiology of DuCV in Cherry Valley ducks in China, the complete genomes of six DuCV strains, which were detected from Cherry Valley ducks in China between 2007 and 2008, were sequenced. Sequence and phylogenetic analysis were carried out to compare these six strains with another 27 DuCV strains from Mulard duck, Muscovy duck, Pekin ducks and Mule duck. The analysis showed that the six DuCV strains exhibited typical genetic features of the family of DuCV, such as a stem-loop structure, three major open reading frames (Rep, Cap and ORF3), four intergenic repeats and the conserved motifs for rolling circle replication and for the dNTP binding domain located in the Rep protein. Phylogenetic analysis of the nucleotide sequences of the complete genome and Cap gene of these strains together with those that have been previously published demonstrated two distinct DuCV genotypes. The DuCV strains with complete genomes containing 1988 and 1989 nucleotides clustered in genotype A, whereas the strains with complete genomes containing 1991, 1992, 1995 and 1996 nucleotides lay in genotype B. The six DuCV strains from Cherry Valley ducks were divided into the two groups. The results of the study provides some insight into the variation of DuCVs in Cherry Valley ducks.

Evaluation of two experimental infection models for Avibacterium paragallinarum.

The clinical symptoms of infectious coryza are multiple and include nasal discharge, facial swelling, lacrimation, and anorexia. In general, the disease is not fatal to chicken; so, in experiments where animals are infected with Avibacterium paragallinarum, there have been debates about conducting the challenge model and evaluating the clinical signs. In this experiment, 150 chickens, aged 30 days, were randomly divided into different groups. Some groups were infected with the 'in-contact' challenge model and others with the artificial intrasinus-injection-route model. The bacterial isolates used were three field isolates of different serogroups of A. paragallinarum, including Hpg-8 (Page serovar A), CCM6075 (Page serovar B) and Hpg-668 (Page serovar C). During this study, a scoring system was used to record the clinical signs of the infected birds and evaluate the pathogenic diversity of the two models. The final results indicated that the 'in-contact' challenge model of the three isolates showed a more reliable representation of the natural infection under field conditions than the artificial intrasinus-injection-route model. Thus, on carrying out animal experiments, the effect of 'in-contact' challenge model is more accurate than the artificial intrasinus-injection-route model.

[Sequence analysis for the complete provial genome of endogenous avian leukosis virus strain SD0501].

The genomic DNA extracted from chicken embryo fibroblasts (CEF) of SPF chickens from three chicken farms was used as template to amplify the ALV proviral DNA by PCR with four pairs of primers, high positive detection rates of gag - gene (29/46), pol - gene (27/46), env - gene (24/46) and LTR fragment (31/46) were achieved. Eight continuous and overlapping fragments were amplified from one DNA sample with 8 pairs of primers according to published sequences, then cloned into the TA vector and se quenced. The complete sequence of the whole genome of ALV strain SD0501 was established and analyzed with DNAstar software. Comparisons of SD0501 sequence with that of other representative endogenous avian virus strains demonstrated that the genomes of ALV were relatively conservative, the nucleotide identity of all the strains was over 99.1%, and env - gene was over 98.5%. However, a low identity was demonstrated among the representative strains of different subgroups, especially, the env - gene showed obvious difference, the corresponding identity was as low as 56.3% - 91.5%.