Detection of infectious laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV) in tissues and blood fractions from experimentally infected chickens using PCR and immunostaining analyses

Title
Detection of infectious laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV) in tissues and blood fractions from experimentally infected chickens using PCR and immunostaining analyses
Publication Date
2021-01
Author(s)
Tran, Thanh T
Shahid, Nazir
Yegoraw, Addisu A
Assen, Awol M
Walkden-Brown, Stephen W
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0638-5533
Email: swalkden@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:swalkden
Gerber, Priscilla F
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8343-8299
Email: pgerber2@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:pgerber2
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Elsevier Ltd
Place of publication
United Kingdom
DOI
10.1016/j.rvsc.2020.11.024
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/51882
Abstract

The ability of infectious laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV) to replicate in organs outside of the upper respiratory tract and conjunctiva associated-lymphoid tissues is still not well understood. This study investigated the tissue distribution of an Australian field strain of ILTV (class 9) on birds experimentally inoculated via eye-drop at 7 days of age by using quantitative PCR (qPCR) and immunohistochemistry. Tissues including conjunctiva, caecal tonsil, kidney, liver, lung, spleen, thymus, trachea and blood were collected from sham-inoculated (control group; n = 2) and ILTV-inoculated (n = 8) birds at 7 days post-inoculation (dpi). Blood was collected from 13 infected birds at 14 dpi and fractionated using ficoll-paque. At 7 dpi, the highest detection rate and genomic copies (GC) were in conjunctiva (8/8; 8.08 ± 0.48 log10 GC/mg) followed by trachea (8/8; 4.64 ± 0.48) and thymus (8/8; 4.52 ± 0.48), kidney (8/8; 3.97 ± 0.48), lung (8/8; 3.65 ± 0.48), spleen (8/8; 3.55 ± 0.48), liver (8/8; 3.51 ± 0.48), caecal tonsil (7/8; 3.76 ± 0.48) and plasma (4/8; 2.40 ± 0.48 log10 GC/ml). ILTV antigen was only detected in conjunctiva (7/8), trachea (6/8) and lung (4/8) samples. At 14 dpi, ILTV detection rate and genomic copies in buffy coat cells were 12/13 and 2.86 ± 0.39 log10 GC/mg, respectively while those of plasma were 11/13 and 4.29 ± 0.39 log10 GC/ml and red blood cell were 3/13 and 0.36 ± 0.39 log10 GC/mg. In conclusion, ILTV DNA was detected in a wide range of tissues and blood fractions but ILTV antigen was only detected in respiratory organs and conjunctiva.

Link
Citation
Research in Veterinary Science, v.134, p. 64-68
ISSN
1532-2661
0034-5288
Pubmed ID
33310555
Start page
64
End page
68

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