Diverse uses of feathers with emphasis on diagnosis of avian viral infections and vaccine virus monitoring

Abstract

The large amounts of feathers produced by the poultry industry, that is considered as a waste was explored for possible uses in various industries, such as meals for animals, biofuels, biodegradable plastic materials, combating water pollution and more. That review mentions these uses, but concentrate on the utilization of feathers for the diagnosis of viral infections and for monitoring vaccine viruses in chickens after vaccination. The viral diseases in which diagnosis using nucleic acids extracted from the feather shafts was described are, Marek's disease virus, circoviruses, chicken anemia virus, fowlpox virus, avian retroviruses, avian influenza virus and infectious laryngotracheitis virus. In two cases, of Marek's disease virus and of infectious laryngotracheitis virus, the differentiation of vaccine and wild-type viruses from feather shafts was made possible, thus allowing for monitoring the vaccination efficacy. The present review demonstrates also the stability of DNA viruses in feather shafts, and the possible evaluation of environmental dissemination of pathogens. When viruses are transmitted vertically, like in the cases of the retrovirus REV, a teratogenic effect on the development of feathers of the day-old newly hatched chick might occur in the case of avian influenza and the chicken anemia virus, which might indicate on a viral infection

Biotic concerns in generating molecular diagnosis matrixes for 4 avian viruses with emphasis on Marek’s disease virus

“…In fact, MDV was the first avian virus described in the context of its presence in feathers and was extensively studied (Schat and Nair, 2013). As MDV became the prototype avian virus which reside in the feather follicle epithelium and shafts, the feather tips were incorporated for use in the diagnosis of commercial flocks (Davidson and Borenshtain, 2002, Davidson and Shkoda, 2005Davidson, 2009a). Ralapanawe et al (2016) studied commercial layers demonstrating the MDV-1 in feathers and dust.…”

“…One of the possibilities of genomic interactions is gene exchanges between the viruses that infect the same cell. The molecular interaction that occurs in multiple virus infections with the five avian oncogenic viruses, that include herpes and retroviruses, and are economically important in veterinary virology consists a biological example for creation of viral diversity through molecular recombination (Davidson and Silva, 2008;Davidson, 2009a). Genomic exchanges between viruses can occur between two RNA viruses, between two DNA viruses, or between DNA and RNA viruses.…”

The Potential of Animal By-Products in Food Systems: Production, Prospects and Challenges

“…More so, application of high-pressure heat and steam has been shown to hydrolyze feathers into usable cysteine-rich, high protein product which has 60% digestibility [69]. These degraded feathers can be used to produce fertiliser because of its high protein and nitrogen content [70]. Furthermore, chicken feathers can be used for the production of strong thermoplastic products (such as polyethylene nylon, polyvinyl chloride and polystyrene) when processed with chemicals such as methyl acrylate [71].…”

Newcastle disease virus antibody in serum and feather pulp of chickens vaccinated with thermostable vaccine coated on grains and brans in Zaria, Northern Nigeria

“…The use of feather shafts of chickens for the diagnosis of viral infections and for monitoring vaccine viruses has been reported (Davidson, 2009). Other researchers (Dong-Hun et al, 2016) also detected viral antigens in feathers of chickens infected with viscerotropic velogenic NDV suggesting that feathers could act as source of viral Abah et al 265 transmission.…”