Abstract

Background: Chicken infectious anemia virus (CAV) is a ubiquitous pathogen that usually affects young chickens. Clinical infection leads to anemia, lethargy, immunosuppression, and increased mortality. Methods: In this study, 12 Philippine provinces from 5 regions were selected for sampling and testing against CAV using PCR assay. Oropharyngeal-cloacal swabs (OPCs), combined OPCs with tissues, and tissue samples were taken from cooperating breeder, broiler breeder, and layer farms. Results: The overall CAV positivity rate of the collected samples from commercial chicken flocks is 7.26% (34/468). Based on the flock type, a positivity rate of 29.79% (14/47), 11.19% (15/134), and 1.77% (5/282) were detected in layer, breeder, and broiler flocks, respectively. Based on the region, a positivity rate of 1.31% (4/305) and 21.74% (30/138) were detected from Regions III and IVA, respectively. Nucleic acid sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of selected samples showed clustering under genotype D1. Conclusions: The results describe the current CAV situation in commercial chicken flocks from different provinces and their relationship with other strains. Apparently, CAV detection was moderately associated with flock type and region; and weakly associated with flock age and sample type. The local CAV strains from this study were closely related (98.26-99.62%) to Chinese and Taiwanese strains.

Keywords

chicken anemia virus; nucleotide sequencing; poultry; polymerase chain reaction; swabs

2 MIC 12092023 Download