Duck “beak atrophy and dwarfism syndrome” disease complex: Interplay of novel goose parvovirus-related virus and duck circovirus?

Abstract

As a newly emerged infectious disease, duck "beak atrophy and dwarfism syndrome (BADS)" disease has caused huge economic losses to waterfowl industry in China since 2015. Novel goose parvovirus-related virus (NGPV) is believed the main pathogen of BADS disease; however, BADS is rarely reproduced by infecting ducks with NGPV alone. As avian circovirus infection causes clinical symptoms similar to BADS, duck circovirus (DuCV) is suspected the minor pathogen of BADS disease. In this study, an investigation was carried out to determine the coinfection of NGPV and DuCV in duck embryos and in ducks with BADS disease. According to our study, the coinfection of emerging NGPV and DuCV was prevalent in East China (Shandong, Jiangsu and Anhui province) and could be vertical transmitted, indicating their cooperative roles in duck BADS disease.

Molecular survey of duck circovirus infection in poultry in southern and southwestern China during 2018 and 2019

“…Based on these results, we confirmed that among these 19 DuCVs, Group 1 was prevalent in Guangdong, Group 2 was prevalent in Guangxi and both groups were prevalent in Yunnan province. Interestingly, there were differences between the DuCVs identified in this study and other DuCVs from previous reports, and the genome lengths of the novel sequences GD150501, GD150502 GD180503, GD180504, GD190401, GD190402 and GD190403 were all 1987 nt, which is the shortest observed DuCV genome on record [15,20,24,26]. When the sequences were compared with the other genomes in GenBank, it became clear that there was a deletion at the 966 site in the intragenic region in 7 DuCVs from Guangdong, and other DuCVs also showed multiple Fig.…”

“…The novel DuCVs can infect different breeds of ducks, and ducks over 4 weeks old were the most susceptible. We were the first to report variations in the complete genome lengths of and recombination in a novel DuCV in southern and southwestern China [15,20,[24][25][26]. DuCVs in additional species of ducks remain to be detected, and no wild bird samples were collected.…”

“…There are no existing vaccines or drugs to cure or prevent DuCV, resulting in serious economic and production losses in the poultry industry. The prevalence of DuCV has been extensively reported in multiple species of ducks and from many provinces and cities in China [20,24]. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the epidemiology of DuCVs circulating in southern and southwestern China.…”

“…Total viral DNA was extracted from 0.1 g of BF samples by a previously described method [24]. The DNA was used to detect DuCV pathogens by PCR using the common DuCV detection primers F1: (5′-ATATTATTAC CGGCGC (C/T) TG-3′) and R1: (TCAGGAATCCCTG (A/C) AGGTGA-3′) [12].…”

Coinfection of novel goose parvovirus–associated virus and duck circovirus in feather sacs of Cherry Valley ducks with feather shedding syndrome

“…DuCV often coinfects with other bacterial and viral pathogens ( Hattermann et al., 2003 ; Ball et al., 2004 ; Soike et al., 2004 ; Jiang et al., 2008 ; Zhang et al., 2009 ). Our previous report suggested that the coinfection of NGPV and DuCV might aggravate the development of the BADS disease in Cherry Valley ducks and mule ducks ( Li et al., 2018b ).…”