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Marek’s disease virus in vaccinated poultry flocks in Turkey: its first isolation with molecular characterization

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Abstract

Marek's disease (MD) is an important disease of avian species and a potential threat to the poultry industry worldwide. In this study, 16 dead commercial chickens from flocks with suspected MD were necropsied immediately after death. Pathological findings were compatible with MD, and gallid alphaherpesvirus 2 was identified in PCR of spleen samples. Virus isolation was performed in primary cell culture, and partial sequencing of the meq gene of the isolate revealed >99% nucleotide sequence identity to virulent and very virulent plus strains from a number of European countries, placing it in the same subclade of clade III as two virulent Italian strains and a very virulent plus Polish strain as well as virulent strains of geese and ducks. The data reported here indicate that a virulent strain of Marek’s disease virus is circulating in Turkey and has not been stopped by the current national vaccination programme.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Fethiye Coven (Izmir/Bornova Veterinary Control Institute, Turkey) for providing primers and positive controls.

Funding

None.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Veterinary Experimental Animals, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ondokuz Mayis University, 55139, Atakum, Samsun, Turkey

    Emre Ozan & Bahadir Muftuoglu

  2. Bornova Veterinary Control Institute, Veterinary Control Institute Directorates, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, 35010, Izmir, Turkey

    Ismail Sahindokuyucu

  3. Department of Veterinary Virology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ondokuz Mayis University, 55139, Atakum, Samsun, Turkey

    Hanne Nur Kurucay, Ahmed Eisa Elhag, Cuneyt Tamer, Semra Gumusova, Harun Albayrak & Zafer Yazici

  4. Department of Veterinary Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ondokuz Mayis University, 55139, Atakum, Samsun, Turkey

    Sinem Inal, Nilufer Kuruca, Efe Karaca & Mustafa Yavuz Gulbahar

  5. Veterinary Science Centre, School of Veterinary Medicine, University College of Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland

    Gerald Barry

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  1. Emre Ozan
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Contributions

ZY, SG, HA and MYG conceived and planned the study and were in charge of overall direction. CT, IS, BM, HNK and AEE carried out virological lab work and data analysis. SI, NK and EK made all necropsy and histopathological examinations. EO performed sequencing and phylogenetic analysis besides helping with data analysis, ZY and EO took the lead in writing the manuscript. GB and AEE contributed to data evaluation, writing and proofreading of the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emre Ozan.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no potential conflict of interest.

Ethics approval

For this study, an ethical statement was not applicable, because the samples were collected from chickens that had died due to the virus infection in the flocks. No culling was done for the sampling process.

Availability of data and material

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in the GenBank database at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/ under the name TrMDV1/19 and accession number MN817545.

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Handling Editor: Akbar Dastjerdi.

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Ozan, E., Muftuoglu, B., Sahindokuyucu, I. et al. Marek’s disease virus in vaccinated poultry flocks in Turkey: its first isolation with molecular characterization. Arch Virol 166, 559–569 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-020-04943-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-020-04943-6

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