Publikationsdatenbank

Vertical transmission of fowl adenovirus serotype 4 investigated in specified pathogen-free birds after experimental infection (2003)

Art

Zeitschriftenartikel / wissenschaftlicher Beitrag

Autoren

Mazaheri, A.

Prusas, C.

Voss, M.

Hess, M.

Quelle

Archiv für Geflügelkunde

Bandzählung: 67

Heftzählung: 1

Seiten: 6 – 10

ISSN: 0003-9098

Sprache

Englisch

Kontakt

Nutztierklinik: Abteilung Geflügel

Königsweg 63
14163 Berlin
+49 30 838 62676
gefluegelkrankheiten@vetmed.fu-berlin.de

Abstract / Zusammenfassung

Vertical transmission is reported as an important feature of fowl adenovirus (FAV) to spread from parent birds to progenies. In the present investigation, specified pathogen-free artificially inseminated hens were orally infected at peak of lay with FAV4 strain K31 to investigate the effect on general health and to follow-up antibody levels and virus excretion in parent birds and progenies. No influence on the health status of the parent birds and the progenies could be noticed. Although some embryos died during incubation, no adenovirus could be isolated from the livers of those embryos. Seroconversion in the parent birds was noticed 2 weeks post-infection and the level of antibodies increased until the end of the experiment at which time all birds showed an antibody response. Maternal antibodies were noticed in those progenies hatched from eggs collected as early as 3 weeks post-infection of the parent birds. At this time, all of the progenies had maternal antibodies whereas the majority of these birds had no more antibodies at the age of 5 weeks, when the experiment was terminated. Virus excretion was noticed in the parent birds 2 weeks after infection and turned out to be intermittent, as no virus excretion was found 1 week later but again 4 weeks post-infection. Virus excretion in day-old progenies was noticed concurrently with virus excretion in parent birds and all of the progenies got infected during their life time, except those birds hatched from eggs collected 1 week post-infection of the parent birds. Most importantly, vertical transmission of viable virus was demonstrated in the presence of neutralizing antibodies of parent birds, such underlining the importance of this transmission route for FAV