Characterization of a Newcastle disease virus isolated from apparently normal guinea fowl (Numida melagridis)

This report describes the isolation and molecular characterization of Newcastle disease virus isolated from an apparently normal guinea fowl (Numida melagridis). With a mean death time of 54 h and intracerebral pathogenicity index of 1.80, the isolate has been identified as velogenic by biological methods. Fusion protein cleavage site amino acid sequence analysis of the isolate indicated the presence of two pairs of basic amino acids at the C-terminus of the F2 region and phenylalanine at the N-terminus of the F1 region, confirming the velogenic nature of the isolate. Phylogenetic analysis of the isolate revealed that this isolate is genotypically related to other neurotropic velogenic isolates like Iowa/Salsbury, Texas GB, Kansas/Manhattan and mesogenic Michigan.