Infectious bursal disease virus: identification of the novel genetic group and reassortant viruses

The results of the phylogenic analysis of the nucleotide sequence of the IBDV A and B genome segments have been presented. Traditionally the IBDV isolates are classified based on the phylogenic analysis of the hypervariable region of the VP2 gene. The analysis of the VP2 gene segments of the isolates detected in the Russian Federation demonstrated that most of them belong to the genetic group comprising highly virulent IBDV isolates. However, not all isolates belonging to one genetic group have the same phenotypic characteristics. This is related to the fact that the virulence is determined not only based on the characteristics of the VP2 gene (A segment) but on the characteristics of the VP1 gene (B segment) as well. The IBDV genome segmentation allows formation of reassortant viruses which can be identified as a result of the genome segment analysis. The phylogenic analysis of the nucleotide sequences of VP2 and VP1 genes of 28 IBDV isolates detected at RF, Ukrainian and Kazakh poultry establishments in 2007 and 2019 showed that 15 of them are reassortant viruses. Different combinations of the genome segments have been identified among these reassortant viruses. Detection of different combinations of IBDV genome segments is indicative of the fact that the heterogeneous virus population circulates on the poultry farms. Pathogenicity studies of the three IBDV isolates showed that the most virulent was an isolate having two genome segments characteristic of the highly virulent virus. Two reassortant viruses having only one genome segment A or B, characteristic of the infectious bursal disease, demonstrated less pronounced virulent properties. 

1. Delmas B., Kibenge F. S. B., Leong J. C., Mundt E., VakhariaV. N., Wu J. L. Family Birnaviridae. In: Virus Taxonomy: Eighth Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. Ed. by C. M. Fauquet, M. A. Mayo, J. Maniloff, U. Desselberger, L. A. Ball. London: Academic Press; 2004; 561–569.

2. Kibenge F. S., Dhillon A. S., Russell R. G. Biochemistry and immunology of infectious bursal disease virus. J. Gen. Virol. 1988; 69 (Pt 8): 1757–1775. DOI: 10.1099/0022-1317-69-8-1757.

3. Macreadie I. G., Azad A. A. Expression and RNA dependent RNA polymerase activity of birnavirus VP1 protein bacteria and yeast. Biochem. Mol. Biol. Int. 1993; 30 (6): 1169–1178. PMID: 8220261.

4. Qin Y., Zheng S. J. Infectious bursal disease virus-host interactions: Multifunctional viral proteins that perform multiple and differing jobs. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2017; 18 (1):161. DOI: 10.3390/ijms18010161.

5. Jackwood D. J., Schat K. A., Michel L. O., de Wit S. A proposed nomenclature for infectious bursal disease virus isolates. Avian Pathol. 2018; 47 (6): 576–584. DOI: 10.1080/03079457.2018.1506092.

6. Van den Berg T. P., Eterradossi N., Toquin D., Meulemans G. Infectious bursal disease (Gumboro disease). Rev. Sci. Tech. 2000; 19 (2): 509–543. DOI: 10.20506/rst.19.2.1227.

7. Stuart J. C. Acute infectious bursal disease in poultry. Vet. Rec. 1989; 125 (10):281. DOI: 10.1136/vr.125.10.281-a.

8. Eterradossi N., Saif Y. M. Infectious bursal disease. In: Diseases of Poultry. Eds. D. E. Swayne, J. R. Glisson, L. R. McDougald, L. K. Nolan, D. L. Suarez, V. L. Nair. 13th ed. Wiley-Blackwell; 2013; 219–246.

9. Fan L., Wu T., Hussain A., Gao Y., Zeng X., Wang Y., et al. Novel variant strains of infectious bursal disease virus isolated in China. Vet. Microbiol. 2019; 230: 212–220. DOI: 10.1016/j.vetmic.2019.01.023.

10. Letzel T., Coulibaly F., Rey F. A., Delmas B., Jagt E., van Loon A. A., Mundt E. Molecular and structural basesfor the antigenicity ofVP2 of infectious bursal disease virus. J. Virol. 2007; 81 (23): 12827–12835. DOI: 10.1128/JVI.01501-07.

11. Jackwood D. J., Sommer-Wagner S. E. Amino acids contributing to antigenic drift in the infectious bursal disease birnavirus (IBDV). Virology. 2011; 409 (1): 33–37. DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2010.09.030.

12. Michel L. O., JackwoodD. J. Classification of infectious bursal disease virusinto genogroups. Arch. Virol. 2017; 162 (12): 3661–3670. DOI: 10.1007/s00705-017-3500-4.

13. Liu M., Vakharia V. N. VP1 protein of infectious bursal disease virus modulates the virulence in vivo. Virology. 2004; 330 (1): 62–73. DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2004.09.009.

14. Boot H. J., Hoekman A. J., Gielkens A. L. The enhanced virulence of very virulent infectious bursal disease virus is partly determined by its B-segment. Arch. Virol. 2005; 150 (1): 137–144. DOI: 10.1007/s00705-004- 0405-9.

15. Escaffre O., Le Nouën C., Amelot M., Ambroggio X., Ogden K. M., Guionie O., et al. Both genome segments contribute to the pathogenicity of very virulent infectious bursal disease virus. J. Virol. 2013; 87 (5): 2767–2780. DOI: 10.1128/JVI.02360-12.

16. Le Nouën C., Rivallan G., Toquin D., Eterradossi N. Significance of the genetic relationships deduced from partial nucleotide sequencing of infectious bursal disease virus genome segments A or B. Arch. Virol. 2005; 150 (2): 313–325. DOI: 10.1007/s00705-004-0409-5.

17. Brown M. D., Skinner M. A. Coding sequences of both genome segments of a European ‘very virulent’ infectious bursal disease virus. Virus Res. 1996; 40 (1): 1–15. DOI: 10.1016/0168-1702(95)01253-2.

18. Yamaguchi T., Ogawa M., Miyoshi M., Inoshima Y., Fukushi H., Hirai K. Sequence and phylogenetic analyses of highly virulent infectious bursal disease virus. Arch. Virol. 1997; 142 (7): 1441–1458. DOI: 10.1007/s007050050171.

19. Sun J. H., Lu P., YanY. X., Hua X. G., Jiang J., ZhaoY. Sequence and analysis of genomic segment A and B of very virulent infectious bursal disease virus isolated from China. J. Vet. Med. B Infect. Dis. Vet. Public Health. 2003; 50 (3): 148–154. DOI: 10.1046/j.1439-0450.2003.00646.x.

20. Kong L. L., Omar A. R., Hair-Bejo M., Aini I., Seow H. F. Sequence analysis of both genome segments of two very virulent infectious bursal disease virus field isolates with distinct pathogenicity. Arch. Virol. 2004; 149 (2): 425–434. DOI: 10.1007/s00705-003-0206-6.

21. Cui P., Ma S. J., Zhang Y. G., Li X. S., Gao X. Y., Cui B. A., Chen H. Y. Genomic sequence analysis of a new reassortant infectious bursal disease virus from commercial broiler flocks in Central China. Arch. Virol. 2013; 158 (9): 1973–1978. DOI: 10.1007/s00705-013-1682-y.

22. Kasanga C. J., Yamaguchi T., Munang’andu H. M., Ohya K., Fukushi H. Genomic sequence of an infectious bursal disease virus isolate from Zambia: classical attenuated segment B reassortment in nature with existing very virulent segment A. Arch. Virol. 2013; 158 (3): 685–689. DOI: 10.1007/s00705-012-1531-4.

23. Wei Y., Yu X., Zheng J., Chu W., Xu H., Yu X., Yu L. Reassortant infectious bursal disease virusisolated in China. Virus Res. 2008; 131 (2): 279–282. DOI: 10.1016/j.virusres.2007.08.013.

24. Pikuła A., Lisowska A., Jasik A., Śmietanka K. Identification and assessment of virulence of a natural reassortant of infectious bursal disease virus. Vet. Res. 2018; 49 (1):89. DOI: 10.1186/s13567-018-0586-y.

25. Brown M. D., Green P., Skinner M. A. VP2 sequences of recent European ‘very virulent’ isolates of infectious bursal disease virus are closely related to each other but are distinct from those of ‘classical’ strains. J. Gen. Virol. 1994; 75 (Pt 3): 675–680. DOI: 10.1099/0022-1317-75-3-675.

26. Islam M. R., Zierenberg K., Müller H. The genome segment B encoding the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase protein VP1 of very virulent infectious bursaldiseasevirus (IBDV) isphylogeneticallydistinctfromthatofallotherIBDV strains. Arch. Virol. 2001; 146 (12): 2481–2492. DOI: 10.1007/s007050170018.

27. Gao L., Li K., Qi X., Gao H., Gao Y., Qin L., et al. Triplet amino acids located at positions 145/146/147 of the RNA polymerase of very virulent infectious bursal disease virus contribute to viral virulence. J. Gen. Virol. 2014; 95 (Pt 4): 888–897. DOI: 10.1099/vir.0.060194-0.

28. Alfonso-Morales A., Rios L., Martínez-Pérez O., Dolz R., Valle R., Perera C. L., et al. Evaluation of a phylogenetic marker based on genomic segment B of infectious bursal disease virus: facilitating a feasible incorporation of this segment to the molecular epidemiology studies for this viral agent. PLoS One. 2015; 10 (5):e0125853. DOI: 10.1371/journal. pone.0125853.

29. Zybina T. N., Pyatkina A. A., Moroz N. V., Kulakov V. Yu., Shcherbakova L. O. Biological properties of the infectious bursal disease virus isolates identified in Russian Federation in 2017–2019. Veterinarnaya patologiya. 2020; (3): 22–29. DOI: 10.25690/VETPAT.2020.46.82.007. (in Russ.)