Vertical transmission of avian leukosis virus subgroup J (ALV-J) from hens infected through artificial insemination with ALV-J infected semen

Abstract

BackgroundAvian leukosis virus (ALV) is one of the main causes of tumour development within the poultry industry in China. The subgroup J avian leukosis viruses (ALV-J), which induce erythroblastosis and myelocytomatosis, have the greatest pathogenicity and transmission ability within this class of viruses. ALV can be transmitted both horizontally and vertically; however, the effects of ALV infection in chickens—especially roosters—during the propagation, on future generations is not clear. Knowing the role of the cock in the transmission of ALV from generation to generation might contribute to the eradication programs for ALV.ResultsThe results showed that two hens inseminated with ALV-J-positive semen developed temporary antibody responses to ALV-J at 4–5 weeks post insemination. The p27 antigen was detected in cloacal swabs of six hens, and in 3 of 26 egg albumens at 1–6 weeks after insemination. Moreover, no viremia was detected at 6 weeks after insemination even when virus isolation had been conducted six times at weekly intervals for each of the 12 females. However, ALV-J was isolated from 1 of their 34 progeny chicks at 1 week of age, and its gp85 had 98.4%–99.2% sequence identity with the gp85 of ALV-J isolated from semen samples of the six cocks.ConclusionsOur findings indicated that females that were late horizontally infected with ALV-J by artificial insemination might transmit the virus to progeny through eggs, which amounts to vertical transmission.

Diversity of Avian leukosis virus subgroup J in local chickens, Jiangxi, China

“…Among the latter, subgroups A, B and K mostly occur in indigenous chicken breeds with rare reports concerning subgroups C and D 4 , 14 , 26 , 27 , while ALV-J, being capable of inducing severe tumors and related symptoms in chicken, used to be the main cause of AL outbreak in commercial broilers and layers 28 , 29 . As a virus mainly spread vertically 30 , ALV can be controlled by strict provenance eradication measures, which has been carried out in many commercial flocks and achieved great achievements in a lot of countries 11 .…”

Re-emergence of Avian leukosis virus subgroup J in the rooster of Hy-line brown layers and its transmission pattern in flocks

“…Li previously found that ALV-J in semen could be transmitted to hens by insemination through animal experiments in SPF chicken [13], but they only discovered the antibody of ALV-J, without viraemia in the hens and their offspring. This study is based on the infected clinical ocks.…”

“…Rubin and his colleagues de ned four serological classes of susceptible birds: viraemia, no antibody (V + A−); no viraemia, with antibody (V − A+); viraemia, with antibody (V + A+); and no viraemia, no antibody (V − A−) [2,12]. Another study showed that roosters could spread ALV-J to hens by insemination and cause vertical transmission [13]. Yet the researchers did not elaborate on the ALV infection status of semen from male or the role of males in the transmission of ALV.…”

The Distribution and Localization of Collagen Triple Helix Repeat Containing-1 in Naturally and Experimentally Avian Leukosis Virus Subgroup J-Infected Chickens

“…Thus, it is absolutely imperative that the strategies should be implemented to prevent and control ALV-J infection in poultry industry. Attributed to the implementation of ALV-J eradication program (6), there were rarely reports of ALV-J or myelocytomatosis in China after 2013. Nevertheless, there were another intensive reports about ALV-J breakout almost simultaneously in six provinces of China in 2018, which attracted our attention (7).…”