Diagnosis of psittacine beak and feather disease (PBFD) viral infection, avian polyomavirus infection, adenovirus infection and herpesvirus infection in psittacine tissues using DNAin situhybridization

Abstract

SUMMARYThe evaluation of the usefulness of DNA probes in a diagnostic setting to identify nuclear inclusions in selected viral infections (psittacine beak and feather disease viral infection, avian polyomavirus infection, adenovirus infection and Pacheco's parrot disease) is reported. A DNA in situ hybridization method was used to detect viral nucleic acid in sections of paraffin-embedded tissues coming from birds naturally and/or experimentally infected. It is concluded that DNA probes used for polyomavirus and adenovirus (FN-23) are able to identify nucleic acid of each virus in the cells with nuclear inclusions, and when used for psittacine beak and feather disease virus (FN-8), and Pacheco's parrot disease virus (FN-49) are able to detect viral nucleic acid in cells with or without inclusions.

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)

“…This was later confirmed by Ritchie et al (1991), who detected virus particles in 26% of faecal samples from diseased birds, in some cases in association with diarrhoea. Ramis et al (1994) detected nucleic acid by in situ hybridization in various tissues, including the crop, gizzard and intestine, even though inclusion bodies were not detected by histological examination. Some of the positive results in the present study may originate from viral damage and persistence within the bursa of Fabricius, a major target organ during BFDV infection (Todd, 2000).…”

“…Electron microscopy or histology of feather or organ samples are widely used for diagnosis of the disease in dead birds (Ramis et al, 1994;Ritchie, 1995). Diagnosis of the disease in live birds relies mostly on the detection of virus particles or viral nucleic acid, as attempts at virus isolation have not yet been successful.…”

A concurrent outbreak of psittacine beak and feather disease virus, and avian polyomavirus infection in budgerigars(Melopsittacus undulatus)

“…The lesser degree of detection of APV DNA compared to that of PBFDV DNA in tissues from both groups of animals (Tables 1 and 2) is probably due to the lower sensitivity of the APV probe, which only detects DNA in cells with nuclear inclusions (Ramis et al, 1993). On the other hand, the fact that 1-week-old budgerigars did not show more severe and widespread APV lesions than 2-month-old birds as expected (Ritchie & Latimer, 1995b), could be due to the immunosuppressive action of the PBFDV (Latimer et al, 1992), which would allow enhancement of the APV dissemination in the second group of birds.…”

Adenovirus of psittacine birds: investigations on isolation and development of a real-time polymerase chain reaction for specific detection

“…Infections with adenovirus (Gassmann et al, 1981;Ramis et al, 1994;Capua et al, 1995;Weissenbö ck & Fuchs, 1995;Soike et al, 1998;Hess et al, 2000) or adenovirus-like particles (Scott et al, 1986;Pass, 1987;Mori et al, 1989;Gomezvillamandos et al, 1995;Mackie et al, 2003) have been also described in a variety of psittacine birds. Most infections were associated with necrotizing hepatitis and basophilic inclusion bodies in hepatocytes caused by different serotypes of FAdV.…”