In this study, we determined and genetically characterized three fowl adenoviruses isolated from chickens with inclusion body hepatitis (IBH) and hydropericardium syndrome (HPS) in China and assessed their pathogenicity. The full genome of HBQ12, BJH13 and JSJ13 was found to be 44,081, 43,966 and 43,756 nucleotides long, respectively. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis revealed that strain HBQ12 and BJH13 were clustered together belonging to fowl adenoviruses D species and serotyped as FAdV-11, whereas strain JSJ13 was classified into fowl adenoviruses C species and serotyped as FAdV-4. To our knowledge, this is the first report of FAdV-4 strain circulating in China. The pathogenicity test showed that mortality for chickens infected with HBQ12 and JSJ13 within 21 days post infection (dpi) was 8.6% and 28.6%, respectively. Necropsy displayed mild or severe hepatitis and hydropericardium at 3 and 5 dpi as well as dead chickens. Viral DNA was detected in almost all tissues sampled from dead chickens. These results revealed that fowl adenovirus strains HBQ12 and JSJ13 are capable of causing IBH and HPS in chickens, indicating that preventive measures against FAdV infection on poultry farms should be implemented in China.

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Infectious bronchitis (IB) is a highly contagious respiratory and urogenital disease of chickens caused by infectious bronchitis virus (IBV). This disease is of considerable economic importance and is primarily controlled through biosecurity and immunization with live attenuated and inactivated IB vaccines of various serotypes. In the present study, we tested the safety and efficacy of an attenuated predominant Chinese QX-like IBV strain. The results revealed that the attenuated strain has a clear decrease in pathogenicity for specific-pathogen-free (SPF) chickens compared with the parent strain. Strain YN-inoculated birds had clinical signs of varying severity with 30% mortality, while the attenuated group appeared healthy, with less tissue damage. The attenuated strain also had relatively low tissue replication rates and higher antibody levels. The superior protective efficacy of the attenuated strain was observed when vaccinated birds were challenged with a homologous or heterologous field IBV strain, indicating the potential of the attenuated YN (aYN) as a vaccine. Producing a vaccine targeting the abundant serotype in China is essential to reducing the economic impact of IB on the poultry industry.

Avian infectious bronchitis is a highly contagious disease caused by infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) that affects poultry production worldwide. The absence of vaccine cross-protection and the frequent emergence of new variant strains complicate control of IBV. Here we designed a study to measure the evolution dynamics of IBV strains in China. One hundered and seven complete sequences and 1022 S1-region sequences of Chinese IBVs isolated between 1994 and 2014 were analysed by using MEGA 5.0 software and the Bayesian analysis sampling trees (BEAST) method, and selection pressure on different proteins was assessed. The phylogenetic dissimilarity of different gene trees in the data set indicated possible recombination. Fourteen isolates were identified as recombinants, possibly generated from vaccines of the Massachusetts serotype in recombination with circulating viruses. The earliest IBV in China was found to have existed in the early 1900s, and continues to evolve at a rate of approximately 10 À5 substitutions per site per year. We found that purifying selection was the main evolutionary pressure in the protein-coding regions, while the S1 gene bears the greatest positive selection pressure. The proportion of QX-like genotype strains increased over time.These results indicate that the genotypes of Chinese IBVs have undergone a remarkable transition during the past 20 years.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) play an essential role in complex ecosystems. However, the species diversity and composition of AMF communities remain unclear in semi-arid mountains. Further, it is not well understood if the characteristics of AMF community assemblies differ for different habitat types, e.g., agricultural arable land, artificial forest land, natural grassland, and bush/wood land. Here, using the high-throughput technology by Illumina sequencing on the MiSeq platform, we explored the species diversity and composition of soil AMF communities among different habitat types in a semi-arid mountain (Taihang Mountain, Mid-western region of China). Then, we analyzed the effect of nutrient composition and soil texture on AMF community assembly. Our results showed that members of the Glomus genera were predominated in all soil types. The distance-based redundancy analysis indicated that the content of water, available phosphorus, and available potassium were the most crucial geochemical factors that significantly affected AMF communities (p < 0.05). The analysis of the soil texture confirmed that AMF diversity was negatively correlated with soil clay content. The comparison of AMF diversity among the various habitat types revealed that the artificial forest land had the lowest AMF diversity in comparison with other land types. Our findings suggest that there were differences in species diversity and composition of soil AMF communities among different habitat types. These findings shed new light on the characteristics of community structure and drivers of community assembly in AMF in semi-arid mountains, and point to the potential importance of different habitat types on AMF communities.