Isolation and molecular characterization of infectious bronchitis virus from recent outbreaks in broiler flocks reveals emergence of novel strain in India.

In this study, two isolates of infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) from field outbreaks in 2008 (India/LKW/56/IVRI/08) and 2010 (India/NMK/72/IVRI/10) from broiler chickens in India were isolated and characterized. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism of the entire S1 gene revealed that these isolates belong to two different genotypes, India/LKW/56/IVRI/08 as Mass strain whereas India/NMK/72/IVRI/10 as of different genotype. Nucleotide sequencing analysis showed that India/LKW/56/IVRI/08 shared 99 % homology with THA280252 (Thailand) and India/NMK/72/IVRI/10 shared greater than 99 % homology with 4/91 pathogenic strain (UK), JP/Wakayama/2/2004 (Japan) and TA03 (China), while the two Indian IBV isolates shared 73 % identity between them. Phylogenetic data allowed classification of two Indian isolates, India/LKW/56/IVRI/08 as having unique lineage within Mass genotype and India/NMK/72/IVRI/10 as of 4/91 genotype. Our study confirmed the presence of 4/91 (793/B) IBV nephropathogenic strain for the first time in India by virus isolation and sequencing.