Publications by authors named "Amir Noormohammadi"

Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), an avian coronavirus, can be isolated and cultured in tracheal organ cultures (TOCs), embryonated eggs and cell cultures, the first two of which are commonly used for viral isolation. Previous studies have suggested that foetal bovine serum (FBS) can inhibit coronavirus replication in cell cultures. In this study, the replication of IBV in chicken embryo kidney (CEK) cell cultures and the Leghorn hepatocellular carcinoma (LMH) cell line was assessed using two different cell culture media containing FBS or yeast extract (YE) and two different IBV strains.

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Mycoplasma synoviae causes infectious synovitis and respiratory tract infections in chickens and is responsible for significant economic losses in the poultry industry. Effective attachment and colonisation of the trachea is critical for the persistence of the organism and progression of the disease it causes. The respiratory tract infection is usually sub-clinical, but concurrent infection with infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) is known to enhance the pathogenicity of M.

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Mycoplasma gallisepticum causes chronic respiratory disease in poultry. A novel vaccine, Vaxsafe MG304 (the ts-304 strain), has greater protective efficacy in chickens than the Vaxsafe MG (strain ts-11) vaccine when delivered by eye drop at 3 weeks of age. Applying this vaccine in the hatchery to 1-day-old birds, using mass administration methods, would improve animal welfare and reduce labour costs associated with handling individual birds.

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The bacterial agent that causes fowl cholera, Pasteurella multocida, was isolated from two deceased wild waterbirds in Victoria, Australia, in 2013. Whole genome sequence analysis placed the isolates into ST20, a subtype described in farmed chickens from Queensland, Australia and more recently in feedlot cattle and in pigs across a broader area of the continent. This study also found ST20 between 2009 and 2022 on three chicken farms and two turkey farms located in four Australian states.

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Mycoplasma synoviae is a pathogen of poultry that causes upper respiratory tract disease. MS-H is a live attenuated temperature-sensitive vaccine that effectively control M. synoviae infection in chickens.

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Background: Commercially available D-dimer assays use antibodies against human D-dimer, with limited sensitivity and specificity data in companion animals.

Objectives: To evaluate the immunoreactivity of D-dimer in plasma of dogs, horses, and cats with commercially available antibodies to human D-dimer.

Animals: Plasma samples were collected from healthy dogs and horses, and from surplus feline plasma submitted for diagnostic purposes.

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Bacterial chondronecrosis with osteomyelitis (BCO) impacts animal welfare and productivity in the poultry industry worldwide, yet it has an understudied pathogenesis. While Avian Pathogenic (APEC) are known to be one of the main causes, there is a lack of whole genome sequence data, with only a few BCO-associated APEC (APEC) genomes available in public databases. In this study, we conducted an analysis of 205 APEC genome sequences to generate new baseline phylogenomic knowledge regarding the diversity of sequence types and the presence of virulence associated genes (VAGs).

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The MS-H vaccine strain (Vaxsafe MS®; Bioproperties Pty. Ltd., Australia) is a live attenuated temperature sensitive derivative of a virulent strain of M.

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The live attenuated temperature sensitive vaccine strain MS-H (Vaxsafe® MS, Bioproperties Pty. Ltd., Australia) is widely used to control disease associated with M.

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Infections caused by are major welfare and economic concerns in poultry industries worldwide. These infections cause chronic respiratory disease and/or synovitis in chickens and turkeys leading to reduced production and increased mortality rates. The live attenuated vaccine strain MS-H (Vaxsafe MS), commonly used for protection against infection in many countries, contains 32 single nucleotide variations compared to its wildtype parent strain, 86079/7NS.

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Prophylactic use of antimicrobials after administration of live vaccines is a common practice in the poultry industry, but the impact of this on the efficacy and duration of protection induced by the vaccines is unknown. The effect of treatment with tylosin on the efficacy of vaccination with the live attenuated M. gallisepticum strain, Vaxsafe MG ts-304, was examined.

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Article Synopsis
  • The Mycoplasma synoviae live attenuated vaccine strain MS-H (Vaxsafe MS) is widely used globally to protect chickens from chronic M. synoviae infections and reduce economic losses in the poultry industry.
  • MS-H, developed through chemical mutagenesis of a virulent strain, has 32 single nucleotide variations compared to its original strain, with questions remaining about the stability of these mutations during vaccine production and after vaccination.
  • A study of 11 laboratory passages and 138 bird reisolates identified 254 sequence variations in the MS-H genome, revealing that certain regions may be more prone to mutations, although the overall occurrence of significant mutations remains infrequent.
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Article Synopsis
  • Glycoproteins E and I (gE and gI) in alphaherpesviruses are crucial for the spread of the virus between cells.
  • Researchers used traditional and CRISPR/Cas9 techniques to delete gE and gI from infectious laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV) strains CSW-1 and A20, replacing them with a green fluorescent protein (GFP) for identification.
  • The modified virus mutants could not propagate independently from the wildtype virus, indicating that gE and gI are essential for cell-to-cell spread in ILTV strains.
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Mycoplasma synoviae causes respiratory tract disease in chickens characterised by mild to moderate lymphoplasmacytic infiltration of the tracheal mucosa. MS-H (Vaxsafe1 MS, Bioproperties Pty Ltd.) is an effective live attenuated vaccine for M.

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Infectious laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV) is the causative agent of an economically important disease of chickens causing upper respiratory tract infection. Strains of ILTV are commonly identified by polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and/or PCR high resolution melt (PCR-HRM) curve analysis targeting several genes. However, these techniques examine only a limited number of mutations present inside the target regions and may generate unreliable results when the sample contains more than one strain.

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Fowlpox (FP) is an economically important viral disease of commercial poultry. The fowlpox virus (FPV) is primarily characterised by immunoblotting, restriction enzyme analysis in combination with PCR, and/or nucleotide sequencing of amplicons. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of FPV directly from clinical specimens prevents the risk of potential genome modifications associated with in vitro culturing of the virus.

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Avian hepatitis E virus (aHEV) is the causative agent of an important disease of broiler breeders and layers. aHEV cannot be readily propagated in cell culture and is characterised primarily by sequencing of amplicons generated through several RT-PCRs that target individual genes. This study aims to uncover the origin of current Australian aHEV isolates based on whole genome sequencing using clinical liver tissues.

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Tracheitis associated with the chronic respiratory disease in chickens caused by Mycoplasma gallisepticum is marked by infiltration of leukocytes into the mucosa. Although cytokines/chemokines are known to play a key role in the recruitment, differentiation, and proliferation of leukocytes, those that are produced and secreted into the trachea during the chronic stages of infection with M. gallisepticum have not been described previously.

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Immunosuppression can increase the susceptibility of chickens to other disease-causing pathogens and interfere with the efficacy of vaccination against those pathogens. Chicken anaemia virus (CAV) and infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) are common causes of immunosuppression in chickens. Immunosuppression was induced by experimental infection with either CAV or IBDV to assess the effect of immunosuppression on the efficacy of vaccination with Mycoplasma gallisepticum strain ts-304 against infection with virulent M.

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Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) was first isolated in Australia in 1962. Ongoing surveillance and characterization of Australian IBVs have shown that they have evolved separately from strains found throughout the rest of the world, resulting in the evolution of a range of unique strains and changes in the dominant wild-type strains, affecting tissue tropism, pathogenicity, antigenicity, and gene arrangement. Between 1961 and 1976 highly nephropathogenic genotype GI-5 and GI-6 strains, causing mortalities of 40% to 100%, predominated, while strains causing mainly respiratory disease, with lower mortality rates, have predominated since then.

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Live attenuated vaccines are commonly used to control infections in chickens. ts-304 is a novel live attenuated vaccine strain that has been shown to be safe and effective. In this study, the transcriptional profiles of genes in the tracheal mucosa in chickens challenged with the wild-type strain Ap3AS at 57 weeks after vaccination with ts-304 were explored and compared with the profiles of unvaccinated chickens that had been challenged with strain Ap3AS, unvaccinated and unchallenged chickens, and vaccinated but unchallenged chickens.

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Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) is an important pathogen of poultry worldwide, causing chronic respiratory disease in chickens and turkeys. MG ts-304 is a GapA positive clone recovered from Vaxsafe MG (strain ts-11) that has been shown to be safe in chickens when delivered by the eye drop route to 3-week-old specific-pathogen-free chickens and to confer protection against challenge at 4 weeks after vaccination, as measured by tracheal mucosal thickness and air sac lesion scores. In this study, specific pathogen-free chickens (SPF) were vaccinated with a single dose of the MG ts-304 vaccine (10 colour changing units) at 3 weeks of age and experimentally challenged by aerosol with the virulent M.

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Background: Genomic comparison of Mycoplasma synoviae vaccine strain MS-H and the MS-H parental strain 86,079/7NS established a preliminary profile of genes related to attenuation of MS-H. In this study we aimed to identify the stability of mutations found in MS-H after passage in experimental or field chickens, and to evaluate if any reverse mutation may be associated with changes in characteristics of MS-H in vitro or in vivo.

Results: Whole genome sequence analysis of 5 selected MS-H field reisolates revealed that out of 32 mutations reported previously in MS-H, 28 remained stable, while four found to be reversible to the wild-type.

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Characterisation of the entire genome of Fowl aviadenoviruses (FAdV) requires isolation and propagation of the virus in chicken embryo liver or kidney cells, a process which is not only time consuming but may occasionally fail to result in viral growth. Furthermore, in a mixed infection, isolation in cell culture may result in the loss of viral strains. In this study, we optimised a FAdV DNA extraction technique directly from affected liver tissues using kaolin hydrated aluminium silicate treatment.

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