الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 16 |  |  |
| | | from | 16 | | |
Abstract
Pox disease in turkeys iscaused by a ds DNA virus of the family Poxviridae,
Subfamily Chordopoxvirinae and Genus Avipoxvirus . . Turkey pox disease
causing a major economic losses due to mortalities, costs of vaccination, DROP in
egg production and meat condemnation. A little information was known in
relation to the epidemiology of turkey poxvirus in Egypt. The aim of the present
study was to investigate the prevalence and characterization of turkey pox virus
circulate in Egypt . To achieve the aim of study, six turkey flocks, aged 48-65
days old located at the boundaries of Belbis villages, Sharkia, Egypt were
selected. The infected flocks shown pox like lesions on the skin. The morbidity
percentage ranged from 5-15% with no mortalities. A total of 30 crust samples
were collected from the six infected flocks for histopathology and virus isolation
in embryonated chicken eggs and identification of pox virus DNA with PCR.
Twenty blood samples were collected for screening of specific pox antibodies in
serum of infected turkeys. Histopathological examination of skin lesions in all
necropsied turkeys revealed similar pathology, mainly characterized by the
presence of epidermal hypertrophy and hyperplasia in cutaneous lesions
Microscopical examination of crusts and scabs of naturally infected turkey
showed marked vacuolation and ballooning with lymphocytic infilteration. PCR
was carried out by applying the primer set targeting the p4b core gene of turkey
pox virus. Uninfected CAMs were used as negative control and CAMs
containing fowl pox vaccine strain were used as positive control. Sequence
analysis of the turkey pox isolates revealed that all isolates were 100% identical
to each other and 99.8– 100% identical to several published sequences of fowl
pox viruses and turkey pox viruses from various countries in different continents
of the world.All sequenced isolates are genetically and phylogenetically closely
related.