ARS | Publication request: Propagation and characterization of turkey reoviruses isolated in Germany, 2004-2008

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: January 4, 2011
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: From 2004 to 2008, suspected avian reoviruses were isolated from turkey flocks in ten counties in Germany. The age of birds at isolation ranged from 9 to 54 days. The suspected avian reoviruses elicited characteristic cytopathic effect (CPE) in chicken embryo kidney (CEK) cell culture. In 2009, CEK cell culture supernatants (n = 25) containing these turkey reovirus (TRV) isolates were shipped to the Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory (SEPRL, USDA/ARS) in Athens, GA for further characterization. After further propagation in CEK cells in BSL3-Ag facilities at SEPRL, the TRV isolates were inactivated using a TRIZOL ribonucleid acid (RNA) extraction procedure and nucleic acid was transferred to BSL2 laboratories for molecular diagnostics. RT-PCR primers designed to detect the TRV sigmaNS, sigmaC, and sigmaB genes were used to amplify complementary deoxyribonucleic acid (cDNA) from the German isolates. The German TRVs were, in general, phylogenetically distinct from United States chicken and turkey avian reovirus isolates. Based on the sequence obtained from the German TRV sigmaNS and sigmaB genes, two United States isolates—one from North Carolina and one from Missouri—grouped with the German TRVs. The United States TRV from North Carolina (NC/SEP-R44/03) has been previously characterized at the molecular level and in pathogenesis studies and has been implicated in immune dysfunction and enteric disease in poults.