Identifikacija i karakterizacija virusa leukoze peradi podskupine J i plijesni Aspergillus flavus kod istodobne prirodne infekcije komercijalnih nesilica.

Simultaneously occurring myelocytomas caused by avian leukosis virus subgroup J (ALV-J) and Aspergillosis caused by Aspergillus flavus were diagnosed in a commercial layer flock. The mortality was up to 1% at 180 days old in this one of two, fifteen thousand layer flocks. Clinical signs of the affected chickens started from 80 day old, and included inactivity, depressed and anorexia. No respiratory signs were observed. On necropsy, various sized gray to yellow tumor-like nodular lesions were found on viscera. Microscopically, the tumor-like nodules were composed of two kinds of patterns, central caseous necrotic granulomas and multifoci eosinophilic myeloid cell proliferation. Intestinal adenocarcinoma in the duodenum, atrophy lesion in the ovaries, arteritis in various tissues, and hydrocephalus were observed, respectively. Hemotologically, the percentage of heterophils and eosinophils were significantly increased, while lymphocytes, basinophils and monocytes were significantly decreased. Aetiologically, A. flavus was cultured from the liver granulomas, and four strains of ALV-J were isolated from the serum of sick chickens, while ALV-A, ALV-B, MDV and REV were PCR negative. The antibody of ALV-J was negative (viremia) in seven sick chickens. The isolates have the highest nucleotide sequence homology (98.2~98.4%) with the prototype strain HPRS-103 of ALV-J. The evidence in this study shows that the source of ALV-J was from vertical transmission, while the source of A. flavus was not determined. This is the first report of ALV-J and A. flavus occurring naturally and concurrently in commercial layer hens.Istodobna pojava mijelocitoma prouzročenog virusom ptičje leukoze podskupine J (ALV-J) i aspergiloze prouzročene vrstom Aspergillus flavus opisana je u jednom komercijalnom jatu nesilica. Mortalitet je iznosio do 1% u 180 dana starih pilića na jednoj od dvije farme od 15 tisuća nesilica. Zahvaćeni pilići počeli su pokazivati kliničke znakove bolesti u dobi od 80 dana. Bili su nepokretni, potišteni i nisu uzimali hranu. Dišni znakovi nisu bili primijećeni. Pri razudbi su na visceralnim organima ustanovljene sivkaste do žućkaste čvoraste tumorske promjene različite veličine. Mikroskopski su bila ustanovljena dva tipa tumorskih čvorova: granulomi sa središnjom kazeoznom nekrozom i multifokalna proliferacija eozinofilnih mijeloidnih stanica. Ustanovljen je adenokarcinom dvanaesnika, atrofične lezije jajnika, arteritis u različitim tkivima i hidrocefalus. Hematološkom pretragom ustanovljen je značajno povećan postotak neutrofila i eozinofila, dok je broj limfocita, bazofila i monocita bio značajno smanjen. A. flavus bio je izdvojen iz granuloma jetre, a četiri soja virusa leukoze podskupine J bila su izdvojena iz seruma oboljelih pilića. Lančanom reakcijom polimerazom nisu bili dokazani virus leukoze podskupine A i podskupine B, virus Marekove bolesti i virus retikulendotelioze. Protutijela za virus podskupine J nisu bila dokazana pretragom sedam bolesnih pilića. Po nukleotidnom slijedu izolati su pokazivali najvišu homolognost (98,2-98,4%) s prototipnim sojem HPRS-103 virusa leukoze ptica podskupine J. Pokazalo se da se virus prenosio vertikalno, a izvor plijesni A. flavus nije bio ustanovljen. Ovo je prvo izvješće o prirodnoj istodobnoj infekciji virusom leukoze podskupine J i vrstom A. flavus u komercijalnih nesilica