Infectious laryngotracheitis is an acute viral respiratory disease of chickens with a worldwide distribution. Sensitive detection of the causative herpesvirus is particularly important because it can persist in the host at a very low copy number and be transmitted to other birds. Quantification of viral genome copy number is also useful for clinical investigations and experimental studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCoccidiosis is a significant disease of poultry caused by different species of Eimeria. Differentiation of Eimeria species is important for the quality control of the live attenuated Eimeria vaccines derived from monospecific lines of Eimeria spp. In this study, high-resolution melting (HRM) curve analysis of the amplicons generated from the second internal transcribed spacer of nuclear ribosomal DNA (ITS-2) was used to distinguish between seven pathogenic Eimeria species of chickens, and the results were compared with those obtained from the previously described technique, capillary electrophoresis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIdentification of fowl adenovirus (FAdV) serotypes is of importance in epidemiological studies of disease outbreaks and the adoption of vaccination strategies. In this study, real-time PCR and subsequent high-resolution melting (HRM)-curve analysis of three regions of the hexon gene were developed and assessed for their potential in differentiating 12 FAdV reference serotypes. The results were compared to previously described PCR and restriction enzyme analyses of the hexon gene.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrevious studies in our laboratory using a combination of polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism have identified at least five different genotypes of infectious laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV). However, the virulence of these classes of ILTV was not investigated. In this study, five groups (16 birds each) of 3-week-old specific pathogen free chickens were inoculated via the intratracheal route with 10(3) median embryo infected dose of five different strains of ILTV.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfectious laryngotracheitis (ILT) has been identified in most countries around the world and remains a threat to the intensive poultry industry. Outbreaks of mild to moderate forms of ILT are common in commercial layer flocks, while sporadic outbreaks of ILT in broiler flocks have also been recognized as an emerging problem in several countries. Examination of viral isolates using restriction fragment length polymorphism of polymerase chain reaction (PCR-RFLP) from individual ILTV genes has suggested that some of these outbreaks were caused by vaccine strains.
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