Isolation and Molecular Characterization of Newcastle Disease Virus Genotype VI from Pigeons in Egypt

This study reports successful isolation and characterization of velogenic genotype VI Newcastle disease virus (NDV) from pigeons in Egypt. A pool of brain sample was collected from three pigeons showing torticollis and whitish green diarrhea in Desouk, Kafr-elshiekh Province, Egypt, during January, 2014. Virus Isolation has been pursued by inoculation of brain homogenate into the allantoic sac of 9 day old specific pathogen free (SPF) embryonated chicken eggs. Identification of the isolate was carried out by haemagglutination inhibition test using specific polyclonal sera against NDV, RT-PCR and confirmed by sequencing. Partial deduced amino acid sequence of the fusion protein at the cleavage site revealed that the isolate possessed the motif^112 K-R-Q-K-R- F^117 indicating velogenic entity and phylogenetic analysis showed clustering of the study sequence with other genotype IV F gene sequences available in GenBank. The study indicated that pigeons may play epidemiological role in the introduction of a new NDV genotype VI to commercials chicken, which will increase the epidemiological burden of Newcastle disease (ND) in Egypt