Phylogenetic Analysis of P4b Gene of Fowl Pox Virus in Naturally Infected Backyard Chicken.

In the present study, fowl pox was diagnosed in 129 backyard chicken based on gross and histopathological lesions. Fowl pox is manifested by pock nodular lesions on featherless parts of body (cutaneous form) and purulent, cheesy patches in upper respiratory tract (diphtheritic form). Tissue samples revealed Bollinger bodies in epithelial cells on histopathology. Among these, extraction of DNA was carried out from cutaneous and diphtheretic lesions from 29 fowl pox affected chicken. Molecular diagnosis of fowl pox was performed by amplification of P4b gene of fowl pox virus using specific primers and obtained a desired amplicon of 578 bp. Nucleotide sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of four cutaneous fowl pox samples revealed close relation with the FPV isolates from Singapore, North America and USA (KY464130, MH175285 and KC017961 with an identity of 97.28%, 97.21% and 97.16% respectively) when compared to FPVs isolated from Portugal, Brazil, Jammu and India (KM974727, KX863706, MF496042 and HM481406 respectively with an identity of 96.66% to 96.86%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]