Abstract
The avian coronavirus (AvCoV) infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) is a major poultry pathogen. A characteristic feature of IBV is the occurrence of many different strains belonging to different serotypes, which makes a complete control of the disease by vaccinations a challenging task. Reasons for differences in the tissue tropism and pathogenicity between IBV strains, e.g. a predilection for the kidneys or the oviduct are still an open question. Strains of the QX genotype have been major pathogens in poultry flocks in Asia, Europe and other parts of the world. They are the cause of severe problems with kidney disease and reproductive tract disorders. We analysed infectivity and binding properties of the QX strain and compared them with those of the nephropathogenic strain B1648. As most IBV strains do not infect permanent cell lines and show infection only in primary chicken cells of the target organs, we developed a culture system for chicken oviduct explants. The epithelial cells of the oviduct showed a high susceptibility to infection by the QX strain and were almost resistant to infection by the nephropathogenic B1648 strain. Binding tests with isolated primary oviduct epithelial cells and soluble S1 proteins revealed that S1 proteins of two IBV strains bound with the same efficiency to oviduct epithelial cells. This attachment was sialic acid dependent, indicating that the sugar binding property of IBV spike proteins is not the limiting factor for differences in infection efficiency for the oviduct of the corresponding viruses.
Highlights
Coronaviruses are pathogens of birds and mammals including humans
The epithelial cells of all segments were highly susceptible to infection with the QX strain, which led to a high antigen detection rate and an increasing cytopathogenic effect over the three analysed time points
We could demonstrate in former studies, that primary cell culture systems of the respiratory tract are suitable tools to investigate and compare different infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) strains [11,12]
Summary
The avian coronavirus (AvCoV) infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) as a representative of the Gamma-coronavirus genus infects mainly chickens and other galliforme birds. Within the species AvCoV, there are many strains belonging to different serotypes, genotypes and/or different pathotypes. Some of these strains cause only respiratory disease whereas other strains can spread to other organs like the kidneys and the reproductive tract (reviewed in [1]). The clinical manifestations of IBV in the kidney and the oviduct are of high economic importance in the poultry business. When the kidneys of young broilers are affected, mortality rates may be as high as 60% [2].
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