Epidemiological study on circulation of Infectious Bronchitis Virus strains in North Eastern Italy

Abstract

Infectious Bronchitis (IB) is still a major health problem in the poultry industry, as it is endemic in probably all countries which raise chickens. Previous investigations have shown that several IB variants are present in the Italian poultry industry. In order to establish which serotypes are circulating in the Veneto and Lombardia regions an investigation was carried out during 2004 in broiler and egg-layer farms. A total of 101 samples were collected from 29 farms with 16 IBV isolations. Of these, seven isolates were identified as being of the IT-02 serotype and six as 793-B on the basis of nucleotide sequencing.

Keywords

• Chicken, Infectious Bronchitis, Broiler, North Italy, Epidemiology