Differential expression of immune-related genes in the bursa of Fabricius of two inbred chicken lines following infection with very virulent infectious bursal disease virus.

Among different inbred chickens' lines, we previously showed that lines P and N of Institute for Animal Health, Compton, UK are the most susceptible and the least affected lines, respectively, following infection with very virulent infectious bursal disease virus (vvIBDV). In this study, the differential expressions of 29 different immune-related genes were characterized. Although, birds from both lines succumbed to infection, line P showed greater bursal lesion scores and higher viral copy numbers compared to line N.

Bursal transcriptome profiling of different inbred chicken lines reveals key differentially expressed genes at 3 days post-infection with very virulent infectious bursal disease virus.

Infectious bursal disease is a highly contagious disease in the poultry industry and causes immunosuppression in chickens. Genome-wide regulations of immune response genes of inbred chickens with different genetic backgrounds, following very virulent infectious bursal disease virus (vvIBDV) infection are poorly characterized. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the bursal tissue transcriptome of six inbred chicken lines 6, 7, 15, N, O and P following infection with vvIBDV strain UK661 using strand-specific next-generation sequencing, by highlighting important genes and pathways involved in the infected chicken during peak infection at 3 days post-infection.