Genotype Diversity of Newcastle Disease Virus in Nigeria: Disease Control Challenges and Future Outlook

Abstract

Newcastle disease (ND) is one of the most important avian diseases with considerable threat to the productivity of poultry all over the world. The disease is associated with severe respiratory, gastrointestinal, and neurological lesions in chicken leading to high mortality and several other production related losses. The aetiology of the disease is an avian paramyxovirus type-1 or Newcastle disease virus (NDV), whose isolates are serologically grouped into a single serotype but genetically classified into a total of 19 genotypes, owing to the continuous emergence and evolution of the virus. In Nigeria, molecular characterization of NDV is generally very scanty and majorly focuses on the amplification of the partial F gene for genotype assignment. However, with the introduction of the most objective NDV genotyping criteria which utilize complete fusion protein coding sequences in phylogenetic taxonomy, the enormous genetic diversity of the virus in Nigeria became very conspicuous. In this review, we examine the current ecological distribution of various NDV genotypes in Nigeria based on the available complete fusion protein nucleotide sequences (1662 bp) in the NCBI database. We then discuss the challenges of ND control as a result of the wide genetic distance between the currently circulating NDV isolates and the commonest vaccines used to combat the disease in the country. Finally, we suggest future directions in the war against the economically devastating ND in Nigeria.

WITHDRAWN: Evaluation of immunity and protection in chicken administered a developed vaccine against predominant Middle Eastern strains of genotypes VI and VII of velogenic Newcastle Disease Virus

“…The obtained intracerebral pathogenicity indices of the genotypes VI and VII strains were skewed towards the high scale of pathogenicity, as documented by the World Animal Health Organization [15]. In addition, the high mortality observed in field outbreaks caused by each genotype strain is in agreement with previous literature related to performance of broilers infected by similar strains [7,16,17]. The FPCS sequence of the two isolates is confirmative of the velogenic nature of the two genotypes of NDV [18].…”

Exploring the Prospects of Engineered Newcastle Disease Virus in Modern Vaccinology

“…For several decades, NDV was only known as a poultry pathogen [148,149] with some potential to treat human cancer [150]. However, with the discovery of reverse genetics, so many other prospects of the virus have been unearthed.…”

Development of an Effective and Stable Genotype-Matched Live Attenuated Newcastle Disease Virus Vaccine Based on a Novel Naturally Recombinant Malaysian Isolate Using Reverse Genetics

“…Importantly, all members of class II genotypes I and II, with the exception of a neurotropic virulent chicken strain, isolated in 1948 in the United States, are of low virulence in chicken [23]. Indeed most of the popular commercially available ND vaccines such as LaSota and Hitchner B1 are derived from these genotype II isolates [24,25]. Genotypes III to XVIII are however mostly composed of strains that are highly pathogenic in chicken [24].…”

“…Indeed most of the popular commercially available ND vaccines such as LaSota and Hitchner B1 are derived from these genotype II isolates [24,25]. Genotypes III to XVIII are however mostly composed of strains that are highly pathogenic in chicken [24]. More recently, a more stringent NDV nomenclature system proposed by an international consortium of experts increased the number of genotypes from 18 to 21, although the total number of subgenotypes has reduced [26].…”