Abstract
Tembusu virus (TMUV) has been a causative agent of an acute egg-drop syndrome found in Chinese duck populations since at least 2010. In this paper, we report the characterization of a TMUV-like flavivirus (named CJD05) isolated from naturally infected egg-laying fowl. The virus was identified and then isolated from hens suffering from severe egg drop and fever in Fujian Province, China. The virus replicated well in MDEF and CEF cells, and its cytopathogenic effect (CPE) was apparent. Hemagglutinating activity (HA) was negative for this virus using erythrocytes from both chickens and pigeons. Viral particles were enveloped and approximately 45 nm in diameter, as observed by electron microscopy. Phylogenetic analysis of the full-length nucleotide sequence of CJD05 indicated that this virus is closely related to the duck-origin TMUV, belonging to Ntaya group of flavivirus. Most importantly, pathogenicity studies showed that CJD05 is highly virulent in 1-day-old chicks, 1-day-old Muscovy ducks, egg-laying chickens and shelducks. Our research highlights the increase in epidemic disease caused by avian TMUV, and subsequent outbreaks are becoming more complicated to treat. The pathogenic mechanisms of the virus are still not fully understood, further research is needed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Institute for Medical Research, Federation of Malaya, Annual Report.1957. United States Army Medical Research Unit (Malaya), pp 100–103
Platt GS, Way HJ, Bowen ET, Simpson DI, Hill MN, Kamath S, Bendell PJ, Heathcote OH (1975) Arbovirus infections in Sarawak, October 1968–February 1970 Tembusu and Sindbis virus isolations from mosquitoes. Ann Trop Med Parasitol 69(1):65–71
Pandey BD, Karabatsos N, Cropp B, Tagaki M, Tsuda Y, Ichinose A, Igarashi A (1999) Identification of a flavivirus isolated from mosquitos in Chiang Mai Thailand. Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health 30(1):161–165
Wallace HG, Rudnick A, Rajagopal V (1977) Activity of Tembusi and Umbre viruses in a Malaysian community: mosquito studies. J Am Mosq Control Assoc 37(1):035–042
Kono Y, Tsukamoto K, Abd Hamid M, Darus A, Lian TC, Sam LS, Yok CN, Di KB, Lim KT, Yamaguchi S, Narita M (2000) Encephalitis and retarded growth of chicks caused by Sitiawan virus, a new isolate belonging to the genus Flavivirus. Am J Trop Med Hyg 63:94–101
Su J, Li S, Hu X, Yu X, Wang Y, Liu P, Lu X, Zhang G, Liu D, Li X, Su W, Lu H, Mok NS, Wang P, Wang M, Tian K, Gao GF (2011) Duck egg-drop syndrome caused by BYD virus, a new Tembusu-related flavivirus. PLoS ONE 6:e18106
Yan P, Zhao Y, Zhang X, Xu D, Dai X, Teng Q, Yan L, Zhou J, Ji X, Zhang S, Liu G, Zhou Y, Kawaoka Y, Tong G, Li Z (2011) An infectious disease of ducks caused by a newly emerged Tembusu virus strain in mainland China. Virology 417:1–8
Cao Z, Zhang C, Liu Y, Ye W, Han J, Ma G, Zhang D, Xu F, Gao X, Tang Y, Shi S, Wan C, He B, Yang M, Lu X, Huang Y, Diao Y, Ma X (2011) Tembusu virus in ducks, china. Emerg Infect Dis 17:1873–1875
Tang Y, Diao Y, Yu C, Gao X, Ju X, Xue C, Liu X, Ge P, Qu J, Zhang D (2012) Characterization of a Tembusu Virus Isolated from Naturally Infected House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) in Northern China. Transbound Emerg Dis 10:1865–1882
Liu P, Lu H, Li S, Moureau G, Deng YQ, Wang Y, Zhang L, Jiang T, de Lamballerie X, Qin CF, Gould EA, Su J (2012) Gao GF (2012) Genomic and antigenic characterization of the newly emerging Chinese duck egg-drop syndrome flavivirus: genomic comparison with Tembusu and Sitiawan viruses. J Gen Virol 93(Pt 10):2158–2170
Gaunt MW, Sall AA, de Lamballerie X, Falconar AK, Dzhivanian TI, Gould EA (2001) Phylogenetic relationships of flaviviruses correlate with their epidemiology, disease association and biogeography. J Gen Virol 82(Pt 8):1867–1876
Reynolds DR (1997) Enteric disease complex. In: Calnek BW, Barnes HJ, Beard CW, McDougald LR, Saif YM (eds) Diseases of poultry, 10th edn. Iowa State University Press, Iowa, pp 1016–1019
Yuan S, Li J, Wang M, Bai A, Pu W, Zhang J, Peng Q, Wang H, Chen Z, Zhang H (2012) Isolation and preliminary identification of a novel Flavivirus strain from geese. China Animal Husb Vet Med 39(9):47–50
Kuno G, Chang GJ, Tsuchiya KR, Karabatsos N, Cropp CB (1998) Phylogeny of the genus Flavivirus. J Virol 72(1):73–83
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Prof. Shao Liangping, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, CHN, for his insightful revisions of the manuscript. This study was funded by the National High-Tech Research and Development Projects (863) (grant no.2011AA10A209), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 31172334), Fujian Public Project (grant no. 2011R1025-2), and Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences Innovation Team (grant no.STIF-Y02).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
S. Chen and S. Wang contributed equally to this work.
Nucleotide sequence data reported are available in the DDBJ/EMBL/ GenBank databases under the accession number JF926699.2
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chen, S., Wang, S., Li, Z. et al. Isolation and characterization of a Chinese strain of Tembusu virus from Hy-Line Brown layers with acute egg-drop syndrome in Fujian, China. Arch Virol 159, 1099–1107 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-013-1931-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-013-1931-0