Next generation sequencing technologies: tool to study avian virus diversity

Increased globalisation, climatic changes and wildlife-livestock interface led to emergence of novel viral pathogens or zoonoses that have become serious concern to avian, animal and human health. High biodiversity and bird migration facilitate spread of the pathogen and provide reservoirs for emerging infectious diseases. Current classical diagnostic methods designed to be virus-specific or aim to be limited to group of viral agents, hinder identifying of novel viruses or viral variants. Recently developed approaches of next-generation sequencing (NGS) provide culture-independent methods that are useful for understanding viral diversity and discovery of novel virus, thereby enabling a better diagnosis and disease control. This review discusses the different possible steps of a NGS study utilizing sequence-independent amplification, high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics approaches to identify novel avian viruses and their diversity. NGS lead to the identification of a wide range of new viruses such as picobirnavirus, picornavirus, orthoreovirus and avian gamma coronavirus associated with fulminating disease in guinea fowl and is also used in describing viral diversity among avian species. The review also briefly discusses areas of viral-host interaction and disease associated causalities with newly identified avian viruses.