Key result
Fowl adenovirus 8a triggers severe hepatitis and immune degeneration in broiler chickens without causing mortality.
Why the study?
Fowl adenovirus serotype 8a had not been previously isolated or molecularly characterized from commercial broiler chickens in Egypt, and its pathogenicity was unknown.
This is the first report of fowl adenovirus 8a in commercial broiler chickens in Egypt, demonstrating its ability to cause inclusion body hepatitis.
Isolation of circulating FAdV in Egyptian broilers warrants targeted surveillance; leaves open questions on regional pathogenicity and vaccine needs.
This study was performed to isolate fowl adenovirus (FAdV) circulating in commercial meat-type chicken in Egypt during 2015 and to identify the pathogenicity of the isolated virus. Cloacal swabs were collected from 9 commercial broiler farms from chickens of 3-5 wk of age in Behira province in Egypt during 2015. FAdV was isolated on chicken embryo liver cells. The virus was identified by conventional polymerase chain reaction targeting a conserved region in the hexon gene. Moreover, phylogenetic analysis of the L1 loop of the hexon gene revealed that the isolated viruses clustered with reference strains belonging to FAdV serotype 8a. This is the first record of FAdV from Egypt on the GenBank. The isolated virus is closely related to strains directly associated with inclusion body hepatitis (IBH) causing considerable economic losses. Pathogenicity study of the virus did not show any mortality, although necropsy and histopathological examination displayed severe hepatitis and degenerative changes in the immune system after 5 d from infection, proving that the virus can cause IBH with intermittent shedding.
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Radwan et al. (2018) studied Fowl adenovirus (FAdV) / Inclusion body hepatitis (IBH). Fowl adenovirus 8a infection was evaluated on Pathogenicity (mortality, necropsy, and histopathological examination). Fowl adenovirus 8a isolated from Egyptian broiler chickens caused severe hepatitis and degenerative changes in the immune system 5 days post-infection without inducing mortality.
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