Molecular techniques are better choice as compared to conventional methods for pathotypic characterization of Newcastle disease virus in poultry birds

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Newcastle disease (ND) has importance in the poultry industry across the world. Despite vaccination, outbreaks of ND have been reported from various parts of Pakistan. The purpose of current study was to characterize the Newcastle disease virus (NDV) through different methods i.e., molecular techniques and conventional methods and evaluate their efficiency. To isolate pathogenic NDV, samples were taken from the commercial poultry farms after an outbreak, while for the non-pathogenic NDV isolation commercially available Lasota vaccine was used. In the first step NDV was tested by F gene sequence through RT-PCR. The predicted sequence of the amino acid in fusion protein indicates the following motif 112R-R-Q-R-R-F117 in pathogenic and 112G-R-Q-G-R-L117 in non-pathogenic NDV strains. While in the second phase, the pathotypic characterization of NDV was done through conventional methods like Intracerebral pathogenicity index (ICPI) and Mean death time (MDT). The results from conventional methods were also in agreement with standard values. The findings of current study suggest that for the assessment of genetic nature and the rapid diagnosis of NDV; molecular techniques are better choice than conventional methods.