Abstract

Infectious bronchitis of chicken is a high morbidity and mortality viral disease affecting the poultry industry worldwide; therefore, a better understanding of this pathogen is of utmost importance. The primary aim of this study was to obtain a deeper insight into the genomic diversity of field infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) strains using phylogenetic and recombination analysis. We sequenced the genome of 20 randomly selected strains from seven European countries. After sequencing, we created a genome sequence data set that contained 36 European origin field isolates and 33 vaccine strains. When analyzing these 69 IBV genome sequences, we identified 215 recombination events highlighting that some strains had multiple recombination breaking points. Recombination hot spots were identified mostly in the regions coding for non-structural proteins, and multiple recombination hot spots were identified in the nsp2, nsp3, nsp8, and nsp12 coding regions. Recombination occurred among different IBV genotypes and involved both field and vaccine IBV strains. Ninety percent of field strains and nearly half of vaccine strains showed evidence of recombination. Despite the low number and the scattered geographical and temporal origin of whole-genome sequence data collected from European Gammacoronaviruses, this study underlines the importance of recombination as a major evolutionary mechanism of IBVs.

Keywords

infectious bronchitis; genomic epidemiology; genomic evolution

Published in

Viruses
2021, Volume: 13, number: 4, article number: 535
Publisher: MDPI

SLU Authors

• Belak, Sandor

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages


UKÄ Subject classification

Microbiology in the medical area


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/v13040535

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/111801