High-resolution melt curve analysis to confirm the presence of co-circulating isolates of avian nephritis virus in commercial chicken flocks

Abstract

Avian Nephritis Virus (ANV) has been implicated in poor growth and renal disease of young chickens. This paper describes the development of a reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction for the detection of ANV in commercial meat chickens and the use of high-resolution melt curves to detect the presence of genetically different ANVs. Pooled cloacal swabs from both healthy and ill commercial chicken broiler flocks were tested for the presence of ANV using a combination of polymerase chain reaction, molecular cloning, high-resolution melt curve analysis and sequencing. Except for one, all specimens were found to contain two genetically different ANVs. Phylogenetic analysis of the capsid am..