Inclusion body hepatitis is a viral disease caused by Adenovirus group
I, and it is worldwide in distribution. The virus is endemic in
Sulaymaniyah city, Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and infections occurred in
forty-six broiler farms from April 2013 to May 2020. Infected bird’s
ages ranged between two days and four weeks. Clinically, birds showed
lethargy, huddling with ruffled feathers, inappetence, and yellow,
mucoid droppings. Gross lesions included enlarged mottled liver, pale
icteric skin, swollen pale kidney, and hemorrhage on the skeletal
muscle. Histopathological examinations revealed large intranuclear
inclusion bodies in hepatocytes, degeneration and congestion of liver
sinusoids, and degeneration of renal tubules, spermatozoa, spermatid,
Sertoli cells, and Leydig cells in the testicle. There were intertubular
hemorrhages and large vacuoles. The seminiferous tubular lumens were
dilated, contained necrotic debris, and were devoid of spermatozoa in
the interstitial tissue. Lesions in the testicle are reported for the
first time in the present study. RT-PCR was used to detect the virus by
amplification of partial 1300 bp hexon genes. The amplified fragments
were confirmed by sequencing. Our results concluded that two different
genotypes circulate in Kurdistan, and the nucleotide sequence of
Kurdistan fowl adenovirus (FAdV) isolates show only 81% homology
together. The FAdV/Kurdistan/2013 and FAdV/Kurdistan/2020 belonged to
FAdV-E close to USA isolates. On the other hand, the FAdV/Kurdistan/2015
belonged to FAdV-D closer to the Chinese FAdV isolate.