Characterisation of Newcastle Disease Viruses Isolated in India

Abstract

Eleven Newcastle disease virus (NDV) isolates obtained from outbreaks of disease in chickens (9) and Japanese quail (2) in Tamil Nadu, India were characterised in pathogenicity tests, antigenically, using mouse monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), and other established tests devised to distinguish between different strains. All 11 isolates were shown to be highly virulent for chickens. In indirect immunoperoxidase tests used to assess the ability of a panel of 28 MAbs to bind to infected cell cultures, 10 of the isolates showed an identical reaction pattern, the other isolate (No. 4) failed to react with one MAb which bound to cells infected with the ocher isolates. Isolates 9 was unstable at p H 3 while the other 10 were stable. All other properties were shared by the 11 isolates.

Pathotyping of a Newcastle disease virus isolated from peacock (Pavo cristatus)

“…Over 250 species of birds have been reported to be susceptible to this disease (Kaleta and Baldauf 2000;Aldous and Alexander 2001) and the list can go up when more and more avian species are screened or routinely tested for NDV. In India, the disease has been reported in commercial chicken, backyard chicken, pet and free roaming birds (Kumanan et al 1992;Kumanan et al 2005). Although the commercial poultry population is routinely brought under vaccination cover, majority of the backyard poultry and wild birds are not vaccinated, which results in the constant existence of a susceptible population.…”

“…In India, ND has been reported in many birds which include, chicken, pigeons, ducks, turkeys, guinea fowl, and emus (Kumanan et al 1992;Roy et al 2000;Kumanan et al 2003;Mathivanan et al 2004;Senthuran et al 2005). NDV has also been isolated from few pet birds, migratory birds and captive wild birds (Roy et al 1998;Senthuran et al 2005).…”

Evaluation of the molecular basis of pathogenicity of the variant Newcastle disease viruses termed ?pigeon PMV-1 viruses?

“…The results obtained failed to show any molecular basis associated with the F2/F1 cleavage site or the HN extension that would explain the apparent low pathogenicity for chickens of many PPMV-1 viruses on initial isolation and, for some viruses, the increase in pathogenicity on passage through chickens. Other APMV-1 viruses isolated from non-poultry hosts have been reported to show lower than expected indices in pathogenicity index tests [11,18] and it may be that host adaptation is necessary for these viruses to show their full virulence. However, it is difficult to speculate by what mechanisms this could occur and why several passages are often necessary before high pathogenicity for chickens is achieved.…”

Analysis of the Fusion Protein Cleavage Site of Newcastle disease virus Isolates from India Reveals Preliminary Evidence for the Existence of II, VI and VII Genotypes

“…With respect to NDV in India there have been several studies to show the outbreak of this disease in commercial chicken and their impact on production [22,30]. Most of the reports had not only looked into the biological characteristics of the virus but also sequenced the FPCS to determine the virulence of the virus [21,22,24,42].…”

“…Most of the reports had not only looked into the biological characteristics of the virus but also sequenced the FPCS to determine the virulence of the virus [21,22,24,42]. There are also reports on isolation, biological characterization and FPCS sequence based pathotyping of NDV from backyard chicken [6] and other species of birds such as pigeons [18,24,40,42,46] Japanese quail [21], Turkey [37], Duck [47], crow [31], Emu [23] and Ostrich [45].…”