Infectious Bronchitis Virus Types Affecting European Countries—A Review

Since its first detection in Europe in the 1940s, infectious bronchitis virus has continued to be one of the major respiratory pathogens affecting the European poultry industry. The development of effective and widely used vaccines for both broilers (live attenuated) and breeders and layers (live attenuated and inactivated) helped improve the health and welfare of poultry but never eliminated the problem. The main reason is the continual emergence of new infectious bronchitis variants (serotypes or genotypes). This review discusses the most prevalent genotypes of the last few decades in Europe. Some of these genotypes seem to be local European types; others have an origin outside Europe.