The Molecular Characterization of a Novel Field Isolate of Infectious Laryngotracheitis Virus

Abstract

Infectious laryngotracheitis virus is an alphaherpesvirus responsible for causing a respiratory disease of chickens. The goal of this project is to sequence a novel field isolate of ILTV, UD2011K, using DNA isolated from CAM material. CAM material has not before been used for genomic sequencing of ILTV. After extracting the total DNA for UD2011K-infected CAM material, a DNA sequence library was constructed. Approximately 0.7% of the generated sequence was ILTV. The complete sequence of UD2011K was determined after alignment to the USDA reference strain and was found to be 151,756 base pairs long. The UD2011K sequence was found to contain 196 SNPs and 28 indels. Of note was a three nucleotide deletion of the ICP4 gene. This sequencing method may be more accurate than RFLP analysis in differentiating strains of ILTV.