Genetic diversity, distribution, and evolution of chicken anemia virus: A comparative genomic and phylogenetic analysis.

Chicken infectious anemia (CIA) is an immunosuppressive poultry disease that causes aplastic anemia, immunosuppression, growth retardation and lymphoid tissue atrophy in young chickens and is responsible for huge economic losses to the poultry industry worldwide. The disease is caused by the chicken anemia virus (CAV), which belongs to the genus , family . Herein, we analyzed the full-length genomes of 243 available CAV strains isolated during 1991-2020 and classified them into two major clades, GI and GII, divided into three and four sub-clades, GI a-c, and GII a-d, respectively.