PCR Based Detection and Phylogenetic Analysis of Fowl Adenovirus Strains Isolated from 2019 Epidemic from Punjab and Sindh, Pakistan

Hydro-Pericardium Hepatitis (HPH) is an emerging infectious disease of commercial poultry, caused by different serotypes of Fowl Adeno Virus. The vertical transmission of the virus into the progeny may results in devastating damage, causing huge economic losses to its farmers. In present study, molecular typing is performed on basis of partially conserved hexon gene sequences, using a unique set of primers having common reverse oligo for simultaneous detection of FAdV1, FAdV-4 and FAdV-11. A total of 14 fowl adeno virus strains were isolated from 100 suspected adeno virus liver samples, collected from different districts in Pakistan, between 2018 and 2019. FASTA’s sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis revealed that out of the 14, one isolate which belonged to group A showed 27% similarity with FAdV-1, while three isolates showed 99%, 95% & 45% similarity to FAdV-4 (Group C). Whereas, ten isolates showed more than 99% similarity to FAdV-11 (Group D). The serotypes FAdV1, FAdV-4 and FAdV-11 are prevailing in the breeder and broilers. These results hold great importance in rapid, reliable and simultaneous detection of the three FAdV serotypes. Therefore, fowl adeno virus vaccine production for commercial poultry shall be according to the prevalent field serotypes.