Development of the Intestinal RNA Virus Community of Healthy Broiler Chickens

Jigna D Shah; Prerak T Desai; Ying Zhang; Sarah K Scharber; Joshua Baller; Zheng S Xing; Carol J Cardona

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0150094

Development of the Intestinal RNA Virus Community of Healthy Broiler Chickens

PLoS One. 2016 Feb 25;11(2):e0150094. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0150094. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Jigna D Shah¹, Prerak T Desai², Ying Zhang³, Sarah K Scharber¹, Joshua Baller³, Zheng S Xing¹, Carol J Cardona¹

Affiliations

¹ Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States of America.
² Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America.
³ Minnesota Supercomputing Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America.

Abstract

Several RNA viruses such as astrovirus, rotavirus, reovirus and parvovirus have been detected in both healthy and diseased commercial poultry flocks. The aim of this study was to characterize (a) the development of the RNA viral community in the small intestines of healthy broiler chickens from hatch through 6 weeks of age (market age) and (b) the contribution of the breeder source vs. bird age in development of the community structure. Intestinal tissue samples were harvested from breeders and their progeny, processed for viral RNA extraction and sequenced using Illumina Hiseq sequencing technology resulting in 100 bp PE reads. The results from this study indicated that the breeder source influenced the RNA viral community only at hatch but later environment i.e. bird age had the more significant effect. The most abundant RNA viral family detected at 2, 4 and 6 weeks of age was Astroviridae, which decreased in abundance with age while the abundance of Picornaviridae increased with age.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Age Factors
Animals
Base Sequence
Chickens / virology*
Gastrointestinal Microbiome / genetics*
Genetic Variation
High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
Intestine, Small / virology*
Molecular Typing
Poultry Diseases / virology
RNA Viruses / classification
RNA Viruses / genetics
RNA Viruses / growth & development*
RNA, Viral / genetics*
Sequence Analysis, RNA / veterinary

Substances

RNA, Viral

Grants and funding

This work was partially supported by the funding received from the Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases Signature Program, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.