Identification of avian polyomavirus and its pathogenicity to SPF chickens

Tianshu Zhai; Jiajia Yan; Jia Wang; Dongni Kong; Lidan Hou; Yong Deng; Guoqian Gu; Tuanjie Wang; Xi Wang; Qinghong Xue; Chunsheng Yin; Jia Cheng; Guanlong Xu; Yaqing Mao

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1320264

Identification of avian polyomavirus and its pathogenicity to SPF chickens

Front Microbiol. 2024 Jan 3:14:1320264. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1320264. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Tianshu Zhai^#¹, Jiajia Yan^#^{1

2}, Jia Wang¹, Dongni Kong¹, Lidan Hou¹, Yong Deng¹, Guoqian Gu³, Tuanjie Wang¹, Xi Wang^{1

4}, Qinghong Xue¹, Chunsheng Yin¹, Jia Cheng², Guanlong Xu¹, Yaqing Mao¹

Affiliations

¹ China Institute of Veterinary Drug Control, Beijing, China.
² College of Veterinary Medicine, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu, China.
³ Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health, Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
⁴ College of Animal Science and Technology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

The research aimed to study an Avian polyomavirus strain that was isolated in Shandong, China. To study the pathogenicity of APV in SPF chickens, and provide references for epidemiological research and disease prevention and control of APV. The genetic characterization of APV strain (termed APV-20) was analyzed and the pathogenicity of APV was investigated from two aspects: different age SPF chickens, and different infection doses. The results revealed that the APV-20 exhibits a nucleotide homology of 99% with the other three APV strains, and the evolution of APV In China was slow. In addition, the APV-20 infection in chickens caused depression, drowsiness, clustering, and fluffy feathers, but no deaths occurred in the infected chickens. The main manifestations of necropsy, and Hematoxylin and Eosin staining (HE) showed that one-day-old SPF chickens were the most susceptible, and there was a positive correlation between viral load and infection dose in the same tissue. This study showed that SPF chickens were susceptible to APV, and an experimental animal model was established. This study can provide a reference for the pathogenic mechanism of immune prevention and control of APV.

Keywords: SPF chicken; VP4; avian polyomavirus; biological identification; pathogenicity.

Grants and funding

The authors declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China awarded to YM (Grant No. 32002273), and the Public Welfare Project of China Institute of Veterinary Drug Control (GY202105).