Researcher(s)
- Kayla Akins, Pre-Veterinary Medicine and Animal Biosciences, University of Delaware
Faculty Mentor(s)
- Dr. Brian Ladman, Department of Animal and Food Sciences, University of Delaware
Abstract
Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV), or Avian Paramyxovirus type 1 (APMV-1), remains a major pathogen of concern in global poultry production, capable of causing significant economic losses due to its high transmissibility and variable virulence. This study aims to characterize ten field isolates, with a focus on identifying NDV and screening for extraneous viruses including infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), avian metapneumovirus (aMPV), and infectious laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV). Sequencing was performed on approximately 800 bp fragments from the 3′ end of the NDV fusion (F) gene, a region critical for determining pathotype and relatedness. All ten isolates were confirmed to be NDV and were highly related to each other and to the commercial C2 vaccine strain currently used in the region. Among them, isolate L251480079 showed the highest degree of nucleotide variation at the cDNA level. However, protein-level comparisons revealed minimal divergence, due to the nucleotide changes being located in the third position of the codon thus not affecting the resulting amino acid sequence. These findings suggest that circulating field strains remain genetically similar to strains present in commercial vaccines. Potential reasons for recovery of NDV will be discussed.