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Updated: Apr 17, 2026
An Ex Vivo Chicken Primary Bursal-cell Culture Model to Study Infectious Bursal Disease Virus Pathogenesis
Published on: October 4, 2018
Molecular epidemiology of infectious bursal disease virus in Zambia
Christopher J Kasanga1, Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi, Hetron M Munang'andu
1Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Parasitology, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania and Laboratory of Veterinary Microbiology, Gifu University, Japan. chrisskasa@gmail.com.
Abstract:
Nucleotide sequences of the VP2 hypervariable region (VP2-HVR) of 10 infectious bursal disease viruses detected in indigenous and exotic chickens in Zambia from 2004 to 2005 were determined. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the viruses diverged into two genotypes and belonged to the African very virulent types (VV1 and VV2). In the phylogenetic tree, strains in one genotype clustered in a distinct group and were closely related to some strains isolated in western Africa (VV1), with nucleotide similarities of 95.7%- 96.5%. Strains in the other genotype were clustered within the eastern African VV type (VV2), with nucleotide similarities of 97.3%- 98.5%. Both genotypes were distributed in the southern parts of Zambia and had a unique conserved amino acid substitution at 300 (E→A) in addition to the putative virulence marker at positions 222(A), 242(I), 256(I), 294(I) and 299(S). These findings represent the first documentation of the existence of the African VV-IBDV variants in both indigenous and exotic chickens in Zambia.
