Evaluation of the virucidal efficacy of commercial antiviral drugs against Lasota virus a surrogate for enveloped viruses

Many antivirals are commonly used in Iraq’s poultry farms and there is controversy about effective of these commercial antiviral drugs. The aim of this study was tested individually for the effectiveness of these commercial antiviral drugs. Four kinds of commercial antiviral drugs including VIRUX®, TopAMD®, V8® and Licorice® was used in this study. Lasota virus was used as a surrogate for enveloped viruses. The following tests: Spot hemagglutination, Antigen Rapid NDV Ag Test Kit, Electron microscopy, qRTPCR and Egg inoculation in order to determine the effect of these antivirals on hemagglutinating activity, viral protein, viral morphology, virus titer and viral infectivity respectively. All antivirals had no toxic effect on the chicken embryos. All these antivirals had no effect on heamagglutination activity except Licorice. No antivirals changed nucleoprotein antigenicity of Lasota virus. All antivirals had no effect on the morphology of the virus except Licorice destroyed the viral morphology and decreased in viral spikes. Three of the four antiviral reduced the viral titer while Licorice complete degradation of viral RNA and prevent detection it by qRTPCR. The allantoic fluid harvested from inoculated eggs with the treated Lasota virus with antivirals showed a remarkable decrease in viral infectivity as following: TopAMP about 20%, V8 40%, and Virux 60% while Licorice showed a complete reduction of viral infectivity (100%). In conclusion, the Licorice revealed the best antiviral activity.