Effect of host selective pressure on Newcastle disease virus virulence

FLAVIA ZANETTI*; ANALÍA BERINSTEIN*; ELISA CARRILLO

MICROBIAL PATHOGENESIS

Elsevier

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2008 p. 135 - 140

0882-4010

Newcastle disease virus (NDV) causes an economically important disease that can vary from clinically inapparent to highly virulent forms. Generally, NDV strains isolated from wild birds are non-pathogenic for chicken. However, there are evidences supporting the fact that avirulent viruses maintained in feral birds could have caused outbreaks of virulent NDV in poultry. The strain-specific difference in virulence is determined by structural variations on the fusion glycoprotein (F). More basic amino acids are present in the F cleavage site of virulent strains. Nevertheless, other regions have been involved in virulence determination. When we subjected an avirulent NDV isolated from a wild bird to a host change we found that the virus arose was virulent for chicken. Nucleotide changes in the F protein cleavage site amino acid sequence and in the hemagglutinin-neuraminidase protein sequence are reported. r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.