Journal of Infectious Diseases & Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

Avian infectious bronchitis (IB) is one of the most important viral diseases of poultry, affecting chickens of all ages and causing major economic losses in poultry flocks. The aim of this study is to evaluate pathogenicity and tissue distribution of Moroccan Italy 02 genotype of infectious bronchitis virus (IBV). Total 40 one day old specific pathogen free chickens were divided randomly into four groups. Group-1, 2 and 3 were inoculated intra oculo-nasally with 103.5 EID50 of virus and Group-4 was kept as control. Chickens in each group were monitored for 14 days post-infection (dpi). Chickens in all infected groups showed severe respiratory signs which most of them have been reproduced on 2 dpi with varying times of appearance and disappearance. The infected birds appeared lethargic, reluctant to move with specific respiratory signs and macroscopic lesions. The specific histological lesions developed in all infected birds, confirm the ability of the three tested strains to induce severe respiratory disease. The results at 14 dpi also revealed that all strains were able to induce serological response. Virus re-isolation from infected organs and amplification of the viral RNA by real-time PCR proved the presence of the virus in lung and trachea of infected chicks. Neither re-isolation nor significant viral RNA detection were detected in the kidney. These results demonstrated that the three strains Italy 02 genotype emerging in Moroccan poultry farms have a wide distribution for respiratory system without kidney damage and without causing mortality.

Biography

Email: Khadija.khataby@edu.uca.ac.ma