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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Animal Disease Center » Food Safety and Enteric Pathogens Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #425263
Research Project: Analysis of Genetic Factors that Increase Foodborne Pathogen Fitness, Virulence, and Antimicrobial Resistance Transfer, to Identify Interventions against Salmonella and Campylobacter in Food Animals

Location: Food Safety and Enteric Pathogens Research

Title: Avian influenza: It just won’t go away. Genomic and immune response mechanisms in chickens

Author
item LAMONT, SUSAN - Iowa State University
item WANG, YING - University Of California, Davis
item Monson, Melissa

Submitted to: Plant and Animal Genome Conference
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/4/2024
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: High-path avian influenza (AI) is a global viral epidemic that has resulted in the deaths of well over 100,000,000 domestic poultry in the last decade. Recently, more wild bird species have experienced clinical symptoms from high-path AI and, in 2024, the virus was been detected in dairy cattle, humans and pigs. To control AI, appropriate measures of biosecurity, improved diagnostics and surveillance, depopulation when required, and vaccination can be applied along with enhancing the natural resistance of hosts to the virus. However, there is a significant knowledge gap in the understanding of genomic and immune response mechanisms of chickens to AI. We used highly inbred and genetically diverse lines of chickens and infection with low-path AI as an experimental model system to explore the host response to AI. The Fayoumi chicken line is relatively resistant to low-path AI, and several other pathogens, compared to the Ghs Leghorn line, as determined by viral titers in the trachea. After infection, Fayoumis had higher numbers of macrophages, B cells and T cells in the trachea, and higher class I MHC expression than Leghorns. The mRNA expression level of a literature-curated selection of genes showed more differentially expressed genes (DEG) in the spleen than the lung after infection, with more of the Fayoumi DEG being downregulated and more of the Leghorn DEG being upregulated. The greatest changes were in IFN-stimulated genes, especially the IFITM family. The whole transcriptome of the lung showed more enriched immune pathways in Leghorns than in Fayoumis. Current studies of a unique multi-functional organ, the Harderian gland (HG), confirm the greater resistance (lower viral titers) of the Fayoumi line compared to the Leghorn line, with distinct differences in post-infection HG immune cell composition and MHC cell-surface expression. Greater understanding of the genomics of host responses may inform strategies to enhance genetic resistance to AI in poultry.