No abstract

Estudou-se a presença de anticorpos para o vírus da influenza aviária, subtipos H1N1 e H3N2, por meio da técnica de inibição da hemaglutinação no plasma de 225 aves da Fundação RIO-ZOO, do Bwana Park e de pequenas criações do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Entre as aves estudadas 60 (26,6%) foram soropositivas, sendo 22 (9,8%) para o subtipo H1N1, 28 (12,4%) para o subtipo H3N2 e 10 (4,4%) para os dois subtipos. Esses resultados indicam a ocorrência dos subtipos do vírus da influenza aviária investigados no Rio de Janeiro e apontam para o risco potencial de sua transmissão para a avicultura industrial e para pessoas.

O vírus da doença de Newcastle (VDN) tem sido isolado na maioria das espécies de aves de vida livre e doméstica em todo o mundo. O comércio internacional de aves deve ser considerado como um fator importante na disseminação da doença. Infecções naturais e experimentais já foram demonstradas em, pelo menos, 236 espécies de aves. Portanto, aves silvestres livres ou cativas, e aves domésticas não vacinadas, podem atuar como reservatório para o VDN. Para analisar esta hipótese, aves do Zoológico Municipal do Rio de Janeiro e de propriedades particulares nos municípios de Seropédica, Japeri, Paulo de Frontin, Paracambi, Valença, Barra do Piraí, Rio de Janeiro e Nova Friburgo tiveram sangue coletado para detecção de anticorpos para VDN. Um painel de 837 plasmas foi obtido, no período de agosto de 1998 a julho de 2001, e analisado pelo teste de inibição da hemaglutinação (HI), dos quais 12 foram soropositivas (1,43%) para o VDN, indicando prévio contato das aves com o patógeno.

Committee: Clarice Weiss Arns (UNICAMP), Nilo Ikuta (Simbios-ULBRA), Luciane Terezinha Lovato (UFSM) Actually, Brazil is the second major poultry producer and exporting country. Respiratory diseases comprising the most important sanitary problems that leads to condemnation of many poultry carcass and productivity losses. Between these problems, the laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV) is displaying great importance following by outbreaks of the disease, such as that occured in Bastos (SP), 2002, Brazil. Epidemiological studies showed the presence of antibodies from avian flocks and the existence of carrier birds without clear clinical signs. More recently, the ILTV has been isolated from chicken and turkeys of the southest-south of Brazil. Continuing the works at laboratory, a turkey isolate was inoculated experimentally in susceptible chicken and turkeys and the reproducible of a mild disease was displayed in both species. Also, different line cell cultures CER, CEC-32, HD11, Vero and a primary fibroblast cell culture were tested for the effective propagation of ILTV with the propose to get greatest titers and the quality of viral DNA extracted. The primary fibroblast cell culture was the most efficient to replicate ILTV. Turkey and chicken isolates was sequenced from de regions of thymidine kinase and glycoprotein C and were alignment with a vaccine strain and reference strains (GenBank) displaying high homology between them, suggesting a common origin. A cloning cassette containing the regions flanking glycoprotein E and a marker gene EGFP was constructed with the purpose to develop a recombinant with deletion of the glycoprotein E.

The propagation of infectious laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV) has been described using primary cell cultures derived from chicken embryo liver and kidney or embryonated eggs, but these cultures use Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) eggs that are time and cost expensive. Since cell line cultures are easier to maintain in laboratory conditions, the growth of ILTV was evaluated in five different cell cultures: chicken embryo related cells (CER), a cell hybrid derived from chicken embryo fibroblasts cells and BHK-21; Vero, from African green monkey kidney cells; HD11, a chicken macrophage cell line; CEC-32, an avian fibroblast cell line and a primary cell culture of chicken embryo fibroblasts (CEF). Cytophatic effect was observed until 96 hours following inoculation and the detection of the viral DNA was performed by PCR. The HD11 and CEC-32 cell lines did not support the virus growth but CEF and Vero, as already described were permissive cultures for propagation of ILTV. The results also showed that the CER cell line can be used for primary isolation and replication of ILTV.