Hydropericardium syndrome: current state and future developments

Abstract

Hydropericardium syndrome (HPS) is a highly infectious disease caused by fowl adenovirus serotype 4 (FAV-4) affecting poultry, especially broiler birds. The disease was initially reported from Angara Goth, Pakistan, and then from India during 1994, in the poultry belt of Jammu and Kashmir, and thereafter, from almost all parts of the country, causing heavy economic losses to the poultry industry. The disease occurs predominantly in broilers of the age group of 3-5 weeks, characterized by sudden onset of high mortality up to 80 %. The causative agent of HPS is fowl adenovirus 4, which is a member of the species Fowl Adenovirus C, genus Aviadenovirus, family Adenoviridae [60]. FAV-4 is non-enveloped and icosahedral in shape, measuring 70-90 nm in size and containing a linear dsDNA of approximately 45 kb in size as its genome. The livers of affected birds show necrotic foci and basophilic intranuclear inclusion bodies in the hepatocytes. The disease can be diagnosed from its gross and microscopic changes in the liver and by various serological tests, such as agar gel immunodiffusion, counterimmunoelectrophoresis, indirect haemagglutination, fluorescent antibody techniques, and ELISA. In the past few years, PCR has been used as a rapid diagnostic tool for the detection of fowl adenoviruses. The disease has been brought under control by the use of formalin-inactivated, attenuated or live vaccines in experimentally infected birds. Advancement in the field of computational immunology accelerates knowledge acquisition and simultaneously reduces the time and effort involved in screening potential epitopes, leading toward the development of epitope-based vaccines.

Investigation of Hepatitis-Hydropericardium Syndrome Caused by Fowl Adenovirus (FAdV) Infection in Broiler Chicken Flocks in Northern Parts of India

“…There are many serotypes of fowl adenoviruses (FAdV) that infects chicken but some serotype produces a clinical form of disease, while infection with other serotype may not result in overt disease particularly in healthy birds. The inclusion body hepatitis-hydropericardium syndrome (IBH-HPS) associated with FAdV has been reported to occur in broilers as well as layers throughout the world (Balamurugan and Kataria, 2004;Asthana et al, 2013). In the past two decades several disease outbreaks have been recorded from poultry flocks of different stares and regions of India, causing severe economic losses to the poultry owners and the industry (Dahiya et al, 2002;Gowthaman et al, 2012;Sawale et al, 2012;Kataria et al, 2013;Kumar et al, 2013).…”

“…Adenoviral infections are frequently reported among birds including domestic poultry and wild species of birds but majority of these viruses do not produce apparent clinical signs as a primary etiological agent. However, a few adenoviruses are directly associated with disease conditions and symptoms such as hydropericardium syndrome (HPS), inclusion body hepatitis (IBH), gizzard erosions, respiratory illness, reduced egg production, enteritis, reduced feed conversion, and retarded growth depending upon the serotypes or genotypes involved (Rahul et al, 2005;Domanska-Blicharz et al, 2011;Asthana et al, 2013). The adenoviruses that is associated with these afore mentioned lesions are grouped under the genus Aviadenovirus.…”

“…The fowl adenoviruses (FAdVs) are diagnosed routinely by isolation of the virus in embryonated chicken eggs or in cell culture, demonstration of virus particles by electron microscopy, or by detection of viral genome by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (Lim et al, 2012). The virus has affected poultry industry worldwide (Asthana et al, 2013;Kataria et al, 2013) and in past two decades and during recent years many disease outbreaks have been reported from different parts of India (Dahiya et al, 2002;Memon et al, 2006;Gowthaman et al, 2012).…”

Characterization of fowl adenoviruses associated with hydropericardium syndrome and inclusion body hepatitis in broiler chickens

“…Conventionally, IBH/HPS outbreaks are diagnosed on the basis of clinical signs, gross pathological lesions, histopathology and/or agar gel precipitation test [1,14,15]. Molecular techniques like polymerase chain reaction followed by restriction enzyme analysis (REA) and sequencing have been used for the rapid detection and differentiation of FAdVs [4,5,9,10,12,16].…”

Fowl adenovirus Group I as a causal agent of inclusion body hepatitis/hydropericardium syndrome (IBH/HPS) outbreak in brazilian broiler flocks

“…In 1987, a new presentation of the disease emerged that was called hydropericardium-hepatitis syndrome (HPS) or Angara disease. HPS was associated with the same group of viruses, and it devastated the poultry industry of Pakistan (Cowen et al 1978, Asthana et al 2013. The syndrome and its various manifestations have been reported in several countries in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Oceania, causing considerable economic losses (Mendelson et al 1995, Toro et al 1999, Ono et al 2003, Rahul et al 2005, Gomis et al 2006, Manarolla et al 2009, Mase et al 2009, Alemnesh et al 2010, Choi et al 2012.…”