Volume: 55 Issue: 4
Year: 2024, Page: 796-800, Doi: https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2024.55.4.796-800
Received: Sept. 27, 2024 Accepted: Nov. 6, 2024 Published: Dec. 31, 2024
Marek’s disease virus (MDV) is a highly pathogenic alphaherpesvirus that causes paralysis and lymphoproliferative
disease in birds, posing a significant threat to the poultry industry. Though initially described in chicken, the infection is
now common in other species of poultry including turkeys and quails. This study investigated MDV infection in turkeys by
screening 57 tissue samples. Out of these, 26 samples tested positive. The primary focus of the study was to characterise
the 132 bp tandem repeats within the BamH1-H region of the MDV genome, the number of which has been previously
correlated with the virulence of MDV. Each MDV-positive sample was found to contain two copies of the 132 bp repeats.
Among the positive samples, two representative samples were sequenced and further analysis revealed high per cent
similarity among each other. A phylogenetic analysis was conducted, providing insights into the evolutionary relationships
of the field isolates. The findings of this study might contribute to a deeper understanding of MDV and in assisting future
epidemiological studies and vaccine development strategies.
Keywords: Marek’s disease, 132 bp repeats, molecular characterisation, phylogenetic analysis
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© 2024 Niranjana et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Niranjana, V., Priya, P.M., Nair, S.R., Surya Sankar, Vinod Kumar, K., Krithiga, K., Mathews, L.K. and Raju,
S. 2024. Characterisation and phylogenetic analysis of repetitive DNA sequences in the BamH1-H region of Marek’s
disease virus from turkeys: Implications on viral pathogenicity and vaccine efficacy.
J. Vet. Anim. Sci. 55 (4):796-800