Veterinary Research Forum (Mar 2013)
Detection of torque teno virus (TTV) in domestic village chickens in Iran
Abstract
Torque teno virus (TTV) is prevalentworldwideand has been extensively studied inhuman and some wild and domestic animals. As the studies on TTV in chickens was rare andthere was no information about the infection of domestic village chickens with TTV and alsostructural resemblance of this virus to chicken anemia virus, the frequency of the infection indomestic village chickens in different villages in Isfahan (Iran) was investigated. Sera werecollected from 50 chickens. Viral DNA was extracted and subjected topolymerase chainreaction(PCR)using the previously described T801 and T935 primers that were used foramplification of a highly conserved non-coding region (UTR) of the viral genome in a singleround of PCR and Set B primers of conserved region in a nested PCR reaction.Using T801 andT835 primers TTV or viruses of TTV family were detected in 16 out of 50 sera tested (32%).Fourteen out of the same 50 sera (28%) were positive for TTV using Set B primers. Totally 20sera were positive using both primers (40%). Ten sera were detected with both sets ofprimers,sixsera with T801 and T935 primers and onlyfoursera were positive using Set Bprimers for TTV. Different patterns of the detection of the virus with the two different sets ofprimers suggests the possibility of thepresence of different genotypes of TTV in domesticvillage chickens and the possibility of the transmission of the virus from human to villagechickens and vice versa. This necessitates further investigations.
