Abstract: Fowl adenovirus serotype 4 (FAdV-4) strain SD1511 was isolated from chickens with severe inclusion body hepatitis and hydropericardium syndrome in Shandong Province, China. The isolate was cultured in primary chicken embryo kidney cells. A study of pathogenicity indicated that SD1511 readily infected 7–35-d-old chickens by intramuscular injection and intranasal and oral routes, causing 50%–100% mortality. The 35-d-old chickens suffered more severe infection than 7- and 21-d-old chickens with mortality highest in the intramuscular injection group. The serum from surviving chickens showed potent viral neutralizing capability. The complete genome of SD1511 was sequenced and analyzed. The strain was found to belong to the FAdV-4 cluster with more than 99% identity with the virulent FAdV-4 strains isolated in China in recent years except for some distinct variations, including deletions of open reading frame 27 (ORF27), ORF48, and part of ORF19. Our findings suggest that SD1511 might be used as a prototype strain for the study of pathogenesis and vaccine development.

禽腺病毒4型(FAdV-4)分离株对鸡的致病力及其基因组分析

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[24]List of electronic supplementary materials

[25]Table S1 Primers used to amplify the complete genomic sequence of FAdV-4 strain SD1511

[26]Table S2 Genome sequence identities (%) among SD1511 and FAdV-4 reference strains