The Emergence of Avian Orthoavulavirus 13 in Wild Migratory Waterfowl in China Revealed the Existence of Diversified Trailer Region Sequences and HN Gene Lengths within this Serotype

Abstract

Avian orthoavulavirus 13 (AOAV-13), also named avian paramyxovirus 13 (APMV-13), has been found sporadically in wild birds around the world ever since the discovery of AOAV-13 (AOAV-13/wild goose/Shimane/67/2000) in a wild goose from Japan in 2000. However, there are no reports of AOAV-13 in China. In the present study, a novel AOAV-13 virus (AOAV-13/wild goose/China/Hubei/V93-1/2015), isolated from a wild migratory waterfowl in a wetland of Hubei province of China, during active surveillance from 2013 to 2018, was biologically and genetically characterized. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrated a very close genetic relationship among all AOAV-13 strains, as revealed by very few genetic variations. Moreover, pathogenicity tests indicated that the V93-1 strain is a low virulent virus for chickens. However, the genome of the V93-1 virus was found to be 16,158 nucleotides (nt) in length, which is 12 nt or 162 nt longer than the other AOAV-13 strains that have been reported to date. The length difference of 12 nt in strain V93-1 is due to the existence of three repeats of the conserved sequence, “AAAAAT”, in the 5′-end trailer of the genome. Moreover, the HN gene of the V93-1 virus is 2,070 nt in size, encoding 610 aa, which is the same size as the AOAV-13 strain from Japan, whereas that of two strains from Ukraine and Kazakhstan are 2,080 nt in length, encoding 579 aa. We describe a novel AOAV-13 in migratory waterfowl in China, which suggests that diversified trailer region sequences and HN gene lengths exist within serotype AOAV-13, and highlight the need for its constant surveillance in poultry from live animal markets, and especially migratory birds.

A Recombinant La Sota Vaccine Strain Expressing Multiple Epitopes of Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV) Protects Specific Pathogen-Free (SPF) Chickens against IBV and NDV Challenges

“…IBV-inactivated vaccines also face some defects such as lack of ability to elicit strong cellular immune responses and lack of cross-immunoprotective effects. Furthermore, chicken flocks suffer co-infection with IBV and avian orthoavulavirus-1 (AOAV-1), which is a member of the genus Orthoavulavirus of the family Paramyxoviridae, often referred to as Newcastle disease virus (NDV) [15], which hinders the prevention and control of these diseases [16,17]. These two pathogens remain a vital threat to domestic poultry production [18][19][20][21].…”

Special Issue “Emerging Viruses: Surveillance, Prevention, Evolution, and Control”

“…Meng et al [20] identify and characterize a novel fowl adenovirus and perform an immunoprotective evaluation of an inactivated FAdV-4 vaccine. The emergence of avian orthoavulavirus 13 in wild migratory waterfowl in China and related genetic features are presented by Fei et al [21]. Lu et al [22] report a novel subtype of bovine hepacivirus in China.…”

Near-Complete Genome Sequence of an Avian Orthoavulavirus Type 13 Strain Isolated in South Korea in 2020

“…The furin cleavage site of the F gene in Korea/E20-158-3 had the same motif ( 112 V-R-E-N-R-L 117 ) as found in other AOAV-13 strains. The monobasic amino acid at the C terminus of the cleavage site and leucine at residue 117 suggest low pathogenicity in domestic poultry ( 2 , 6 – 8 ). The Korea/E20-158-3 genome sequence had the same length of the 3′ leader region ( n = 55) as observed in most genomes of the subfamily Paramyxovirinae ( 9 ).…”