Progress of Molecular Epidemiology of Newcastle Disease in China

Abstract

Newcastle disease (ND) is one of the diseases that seriously damage the health of poultry and is widely prevalent worldwide. It is characterized by high fever, respiratory distress, dysentery, neurological disorders, and mucosal hemorrhage, seriously threatening the growth and reproduction of poultry and production of poultry meat. Newcastle disease is caused by Newcastle disease virus (NDV), which has been prevalent for nearly 100 years and can infect more than 200 species of poultry, including chickens, ducks, geese and pigeons. It has many genotypes, and the variable genotypes bring great difficulties to the prevention and control of ND. The migration of birds plays an important role in the cross-border spread of the virus, resulting in Newcastle disease outbreaks in various regions of China, bringing huge economic losses to the poultry industry and seriously restricting the healthy development of the poultry breeding industry. In view of the wide distribution of NDV and the strong host mobility, it makes an important epidemic disease threatening the poultry breeding industry. Therefore, to understand the prevalence of NDV in China, the study analyzes its molecular epidemiology and the spatial and temporal distribution of each genotype, and it is found that ND in China is mainly distributed in southern China, such as Guangxi and Guangdong, eastern China, such as Jiangsu and Anhui, and northwestern China, such as Shaanxi and Gansu. The highly pathogenic Class Ⅱ strains isolated from these regions include multiple genotypes, with genotype Ⅱ and genotype Ⅶ strains being the main prevalent strains. The collation and analysis of NDV prevalence data provide reference data for epidemic prevention control, and vaccine development.

Keywords

• poultry
• newcastle disease
• genotyping
• molecular epidemiology
• disease prevention and control