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Emerging lethal infectious bronchitis coronavirus variants with multiorgan tropism
Author(s) -
Li YaoTsun,
Chen TingChih,
Lin ShuYi,
Mase Masaji,
Murakami Shin,
Horimoto Taisuke,
Chen HuiWen
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
transboundary and emerging diseases
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.392
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1865-1682
pISSN - 1865-1674
DOI - 10.1111/tbed.13412
Subject(s) - infectious bronchitis virus , virology , biology , tropism , outbreak , serotype , avian infectious bronchitis , avian infectious bronchitis virus , genotype , coronavirus , virus , gene , covid-19 , medicine , genetics , infectious disease (medical specialty) , disease , pathology
Summary Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) causes respiratory diseases in chickens and poses an economic threat to the poultry industry worldwide. Despite vaccine use, there have been field outbreaks of IBV in Taiwan. This study aimed to characterize the emerging IBV variants circulating in Taiwan. The analysis of the structural protein genes showed that these variants emerged through frequent recombination events among Taiwan strains, China strains, Japan strains and vaccine strains. Cross‐neutralization tests revealed that two of the variants exhibited novel serotypes. Clinicopathological assessment showed that two of the variants caused high fatality rates of 67% and 20% in one‐day‐old SPF chicks, and all the variants possessed multiorgan tropisms, including trachea, proventriculus and urogenital tissues. Furthermore, the commercial live‐attenuated Mass‐type vaccine conferred poor protection against these variants. This study identified novel genotypes, serotypes and pathotypes of emerging IBV variants circulating in Taiwan. There is an urgent need for effective countermeasures against these variant strains.