Detection and characterization of avian nephritis virus in ducklings

The first evidence of avian nephritis virus (ANV) in ducks is described. A diagnostic investigation was performed on three duck farms in Croatia. Samples from dead-in-shell ducklings and ducklings aged 30 days were collected and prepared for molecular and histopathological examination. Intestinal and liver samples were tested by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the presence of ANV, duck enteritis virus, duck hepatitis virus 1 and Derzsy's disease virus. Multiple tissues were collected for histological examination and lesions were found to be confined to the kidney and intestine. Moderate focal interstitial and periglomerular mononuclear cell infiltrates (mostly lymphocytes and plasma cells) were detected in the kidney. The duodenum showed rather diffuse pericryptal mononuclear cell hyperplasia (lymphocytes) and fibroplasia. ANV was detected by PCR in all the intestinal samples, while no other viruses were found. Sequence comparisons of the portion of the open reading frame 1b encoding the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene confirmed that the virus detected and sequenced from ducklings shared high nucleotide and amino acid identities with ANV-1. Additional work is required to determine the clinicopathological significance of ANV infection in ducks.