Comparitive sensitivity of polymerase chain reaction diagnosis of psittacine beak and feather disease on feather samples, cloacal swabs and blood from budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulates, Shaw 18005)

Abstract

A longitudinal study was performed in order to investigate virus excretion and viraemia during a clinical outbreak of the psittacine beak and feather disease in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus). Viral nucleic acid was detected in feathers, cloacal swabs and blood samples. Overall, beak and feather disease virus (BFDV) DNA was detected most commonly in feather samples, followed by cloacal swabs, and least frequently from blood samples. In most cases the viraemia was short lived and correlated with clinical signs, such as feather abnormalities. Sequence analysis of the polymerase chain reaction fragment amplified from the replicationassociated gene (ORF V1) indicated a close relationship with other BFDV isolates. Overall the highest level of nucleotide identity was found with the ORF V1 of another budgerigar isolate. Our results suggest that feather samples and cloacal swabs should be taken for polymerase chain reaction diagnosis to determine the presence of BFDV in an aviary, but that detection in these samples may not correlate well with psittacine beak and feather disease.

Diagnosis of Avian bornavirus infection in psittaciformes by serum antibody detection and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction assay using feather calami

“…The results add therefore to the list of RNA and DNA viruses which can be detected in bird feathers. 1,8,17,18,26,40 In addition to being relatively noninvasive an additional advantage of using feathers is that avian bornaviral RNA remains stable for at least 4 weeks when stored at room temperature, whereas most other tissues require storage at temperatures below freezing. Although single feathers may be sufficient for the detection of bornaviral RNA, positive results are not consistently obtained from single feathers.…”

Coronaviruses in poultry and other birds

“…Other members of the Circoviridae family, infecting species other than domestic fowl, have also been receiving attention; for example, beak and feather disease virus in psittacines (Hess et al ., 2004;Johne et al ., 2004;Raue et al ., 2004), goose circovirus (Chen et al ., 2003a;Ball et al ., 2004;Smyth et al ., 2005) and columbid circovirus in pigeons (Soike et al ., 2001).…”

Isolation and Characterization of Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease Virus in Saudi Arabia Using Molecular Technique

“…PBFDV PCR screening samples Blood and feather samples were tested using the replicase-associated PBFDV gene PCR primers. Lane 1-20 (upper) screened blood samples, Lane [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] (lower) screened feather samples. Lane 4 (upper) and lane 1 (lower) PBFDV control positive.…”

“…These molecular techniques offer higher sensitivity and specificity compared to serological test [3]. In addition, PCR based diagnosis can be used for identification of both clinically suspect, and apparently health carrier cases of PBFD [4]. A previously described Rep gene-based PCR assay [5] was used in this investigation.…”