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| Author(s): |
Márcia Mercês Aparecida Bianchi dos Santos
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Doctoral Thesis |
| Press: | Campinas, SP. |
| Institution: | Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Biologia |
| Defense date: | 2010-03-30 |
| Examining board members: |
Clarice Weis Arns;
Liana Maria Cardoso Verinaud;
Isabela Cristina Simoni;
Marcelo Vasconcelos Meireles;
Helio Montassier
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| Advisor: | Clarice Weis Arns; Fernando Rosado Spilki |
| Abstract | |
Avian metapneumovirus (aMPV) belongs to the Paramyxoviridae family, Pneumovirinae subfamily, within the genus Metapneumovirus. The virus, first described in Brazil in 1995, is responsible for an acute rhinotracheitis in turkeys (TRT) and is associated with swollen head syndrome in broiler chickens and layer hens. The present study is divided in three parts. In the first part, eight cell culture systems were evaluate for the propagation of aMPV subtypes A and B. The chicken embryo related (CER) cells, Vero and baby hamster kidney cells (BHK-21) cells were shown to be the most appropriate for propagation of both subtypes of aMPV. In addition, propagation of aMPV in chicken embryo fibroblasts (CEF) and tracheal organ culture (TOC) remained efficient after the primary isolation and several passages of viruses in the CER cell line. The growth curves were created using CER, Vero and BHK-21 cell lines. Compared with growth, both yielded higher titres in CER cells during the first 30 hours after infection, but no significant difference was observed in the results obtained from CER and Vero cells. This data show that CER cell are adequate for aMPV propagation, giving similar results to Vero cells. The second part of this study was conducted to analyze the virulence of an aMPV subtype B strain after serial passage in CER cells. To accomplish this, chickens were infected with 5 different variants derived from serial passage and the amount of viral shedding was determined. The results of tracheal samples showed that the virulence decreases gradually with passage, while in vitro viral titre increases. However, an increase in viral shedding was observed in sinusal samples, demonstrating no decrease in fitness for this organ. The G gene sequences of challenge samples were analyzed, however this gene appears to not be affected when aMPV is propagated in CER cells. Finally, the last part of this study aimed to examine a commercially available vaccine in broiler chickens in terms of it ability to provide virological protection against aMPV subtypes A and B. To accomplish this, the virulence of each virulent strain was analyzed. The results demonstrate that the subtype B virulent strain could be observed longer and in larger quantities compared to subtype A. A complete heterologous virological protection was provided by the subtype B vaccine; however, a lack of complete homologous virological protection was observed when chickens were challenged with the homologous subtype B strain (AU) | |