Abstract

The study evaluated the genetic profile of a low passaged BGM-70 adapted very virulent infectious bursal disease virus (vvIBDV) isolated in Malaysia in the year 2004 based on the VP2 hypervariable region. Embryonated chicken eggs were first used to propagate UPM190 12 times before being low passaged in BGM-70 cell line 7 times yielding UMP190BGMP7 whose VP2 nucleotide and amino acid sequences were determined and compared with reference sequences after Sanger sequencing of the low passage virus. The nucleotide and amino acid sequences of UPM190BGMP7 virus were similar with the sequences of viruses passaged in chicken embryonated eggs (CEE) but differed with higher BGM-70 passaged viruses. The E270 amino acid mutation associated with higher BGM-70 passaged viruses was absent in UPM190BGMP7. However, it has another amino acid mutation at position D279N that back-mutated on continuous BGM-70 cell propagation.

Key words: Infectious bursal disease virus, Nucleotide sequences, Mutation, VP2 hypervariable region, UPM190