Fowl Adenoviruses Type 8b Isolated from Chickens with Inclusion Body Hepatitis in Japan.

Fowl adenovirus (FAdV) type 8b isolated from chickens with inclusion body hepatitis (IBH) in Japan from 2018 to 2019 were characterized serologically and genetically. Serologically, all isolates were well neutralized by antisera against the FAdV-8b strain, but they were not neutralized by antisera against the FAdV-8a strain. Phylogenetic analysis of the part of the hexon protein gene that includes the L1 region revealed that these isolates were all identical. They were also identical to foreign strains such as the SD1356 strain isolated in China and belonged to FAdV-8b. Furthermore, the 2018-19 Japanese IBH 8b isolates were genetically identical to the SD1356 strain by phylogenetic analysis of fiber genes, but they were different from previous Japanese 8b strains. These findings suggest that the 2018-19 Japanese IBH isolates might have been introduced from other countries.