A molecular epidemiology study based on VP2 gene sequences reveals that a new genotype of infectious bursal disease virus is dominantly prevalent in Italy.

A distinctive infectious bursal disease (IBD) virus genotype (ITA) was detected in IBD-live vaccinated broilers in Italy without clinical signs of IBD. It was isolated in specific-pathogen-free eggs and molecularly characterized in the hypervariable region of the virus protein (VP) 2. Phylogenetic analysis showed that ITA strains clustered separately from other homologous reference sequences of IBDVs, either classical or very virulent, retrieved from GenBank or previously reported in Italy, and from vaccine strains.

Diagnostic and clinical observation on the infectious bronchitis virus strain Q1 in Italy.

This paper describes the diagnostic and clinical observations of an infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) variant, referred to as Q1, in clinically ill chickens in Italy. This IBV variant was described for the first time in 1998 in China. In the autumn of 2011 it caused a small-scale epidemic in nonvaccinated meat chickens in farms located in Northern Italy.

First cases of Schmallenberg virus in Italy: surveillance strategies.

Following the first report of Schmallenberg virus (SBV) in the brain of a dystocic goat foetus in 2012 in Northern Italy, immediate response actions were adopted to avoid the virus circulation. The brain tested positive by 2 different one-step real-time RT-PCR protocols; these results were also confirmed by partial sequencing of the viral genome. At that time this was the first detection of the new Orthobunyavirus genus within the Bunyaviridae family in Italy.

Identification of two regions within the subtype A avian metapneumovirus fusion protein (amino acids 211-310 and 336-479) recognized by neutralizing antibodies.

The fusion (F) protein of a subtype A AMPV was expressed in sections in Escherichia coli. Six genome sections were selected which encoded the majority of the protein. These were cloned then expressed from a His tag expression plasmid and, following purification on nickel columns, identities were confirmed by Western blot analysis.