Abstract
Fifty-one pigeon houses from both commercial lofts and backyard of different ages and breeds were investigated for incrimination of pigeon paramyxovirus-1 (PPMV-1) and/ or Newcastle Disease virus (NDV) during 2013-2015. The results of clinical examination revealed nervous signs (wing paralysis, head tremors, torticollis, opisthotonos and leg paralysis), greenish diarrhea, and respiratory signs, with variable mortalities. The gross lesions included congestion and hemorrhage in brain; nephrosis and/ or nephritis in kidneys, ulcer in intestine and mucoid enteritis. Virus isolation via chicken embryo inoculation revealed embryo congestion and hemagglutination (HA) activity of harvested allantoic fluids were detected 41 samples (80.39%) with HA titers ranging from 26- 210. The hemagglutination inhibition (HI) results of the same isolates against PPMV-1 and NDV hyper immune sera which prepared in rabbits (1:5dilution) varied from 23 – 210 in 38 virus isolates. The allantoic fluids of 41 haemaglutinating virus isolates were subjected to Reverse transcriptase polymeraze chain reaction (RT-PCR), Thirty-eight isolates evidenced successful products for partial amplification of fusion protein gene of NDV and PPMV-1 at 356 bp using specific primers. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) using a set of three enzymes; HhaI, MspI and MboI. revealed that 9 strains (mesogenic / lentogenic PPMV-1), 27(mesogenic / lentogenic NDV), one velogenic strain for PPMV-1 and the other was NDV. MDT value in ECE revealed 72 ± 0.0 and 62.4±5.89 indicating that both isolates could be mesogenic. It could be concluded that both NDV and PPMV-1 are co- circulating among pigeons and causing economical losses. Rt-PCR followed by RFLP can be useful rapid tools for detection and identification of both viruses. Beside, in the view of the failure of adopted prophylactic vaccination, both LaSota and Inactivated PPMV-1 vaccines must be included to overcome the impact of aforementioned disease problems in pigeons
Highlights
Nervous signs in pigeons represent one of the most important problems in Egypt in last few years and many etololgical agents are involved in such problems as Pigeon paramyxovirus-1, Newcastle disease virus and Paratyphoid [1] Newcastle Disease (ND) is caused by avian paramyxovirus-1 (APMV-1) which belongs to the genus Avulavirus, sub-family Paramyxovirinae, family Paramyxoviridae, order Mononegavirales [2]
The HA activity of harvested allantoic fluids were observed in 33 samples from first embryo passages which increased to 41 samples (80.39%) in the third passages
The current results revealed that examined pigeons suffered from nervous signs, head tremors were the most common followed by torticollis, leg paralysis, wing paralysis opisthotonos
Summary
Nervous signs in pigeons represent one of the most important problems in Egypt in last few years and many etololgical agents are involved in such problems as Pigeon paramyxovirus-1, Newcastle disease virus and Paratyphoid [1] Newcastle Disease (ND) is caused by avian paramyxovirus-1 (APMV-1) which belongs to the genus Avulavirus, sub-family Paramyxovirinae, family Paramyxoviridae, order Mononegavirales [2]. Several NDVs causing outbreaks in domestic pigeons have been reported in different countries and caused high economic losses [3,4,5,6]. Pigeon paramyxovirus-1 (PPMV-1) is a variant form of classical NDV on the basis of characterization by pathogenicity tests and monoclonal antibody binding studies [7, 8, 9]. Both of the above mentioned viruses are characterized by sudden onset and rapid spread with high mortality and morbidity rates 80 and 100% respectively associated mainly with nervous disorders [1, 10, 11]. In Egypt, Paramyxovirus-1 was isolated from several disease problems with nervous manifestation
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