Abstract

A pool of brain sample was collected from three pigeons showing torticollis and whitish green diarrhea in Desouk, Kafr-elshiekh Province, Egypt,during January, 2014. Virus Isolation has been pursued by inoculation of brain homogenate into the allantoic sac of 9 day old specific pathogen free (SPF) embryonated chicken eggs and incubated at 37oC for 4 days. Identification of the isolate was carried out by haemagglutination inhibition test using specific polyclonal antisera against NDV and AIV ( subtype H5 and H9), RT-PCR and confirmed by sequencing. Partial deduced amino acid sequence of the fusion protein at the cleavage site revealed that the isolate possessed the motif 112 K-R-Q-K-R-F117 indicating velogenic entity and phylogenetic analysis showed clustering of the study sequence with other genotype IV F gene sequences available in GenBank.The study indicated that pigeons may play epidemiological role in the introduction of a new NDV genotype VI to commercials chicken.

Key words: Newcastle disease virus; Velogenic; pigeon; Genotype IV; Egypt