Abstract:
Fowl adenovirus (FAdV) is a member of the genus Aviadenovirus and causes a number of
economically important poultry diseases. One of these diseases, inclusion body hepatitis
(IBH), has a worldwide distribution and is characterised by acute mortality (5% – 20%) in
production chickens. The disease was first described in the United States of America in 1963
and has also been reported in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, France and Ireland, but
until now, not in South Africa. Adenoviruses isolated from the first outbreak of IBH in South
Africa were able to reproduce the disease in chicken embryo livers. The aim of the present
study was to characterise the viruses and determine the pathogenicity of the FAdV strains
responsible for the first reported case of IBH in South Africa. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
amplification of the L1 loop region of the fowl adenovirus hexon gene using degenerate primer
pair hexon A/B was used to identify the viruses that were isolated. Restriction fragment
length polymorphism (RFLP) of the amplification products was used for the differentiation
of 14 isolates of fowl adenovirus. Sequencing of the PCR products followed by amino acid
comparison and phylogenetic analysis using the L1 loop region of the hexon protein was
done to determine the identity of the isolates. Amino acid sequences of the hexon genes of all
the South African isolates were compared with those of reference strains representing FAdV
species. Amino acid comparison of 12 South Africa field isolates to FAdV reference strains
revealed a high sequence identity (> 93.33%) with reference strains T8-A and 764. Two of
the isolates had high sequence identity (93.40%) with reference strains P7-A, C2B and SR48.
Phylogenetic analysis of the L1 loop region of the hexon protein of all 14 South African isolates
was consistent with their RFLP clusters. The mortality rates of embryos challenged with 106
egg infective doses (EID50) FAdV 2 were 80% – 87% and mortality rates for embryos challenged
with 105.95 (EID50) FAdV 8b were 65% – 80%.
