Detection and molecular characterization of infectious bronchitis virus from recent outbreaks in broiler flocks in Sulaimani Governorate

Infectious Bronchitis (IB) is one of the most important viral diseases of poultry. It causes major financial losses in the poultry industry. It is caused by the infectious bronchitis virus (IBV). This study investigated the genetic origin and diversity of IBV by analyzing the partial S1 sequence derived from local broiler farms in different regions of Sulaimani Governorate. Detection was performed using a newly designed primer for the partial S1 gene. The present was undertaken to understand the molecular relationship between the strains across the world compared with field virus isolates by phylogenetic tree and sequences-analysis. Phylogenetic tree demonstrated that field isolate made a novel group (sul-5/17-like strain), indicating new variants. Also, field virus sequences were closely matched to Iranian strain HQ123347/RFIBV6 (97.00%). Further sequences analysis exhibited that field isolate was not homologous but high divergences with reverence vaccines strains. These results indicated that differences in S1 protein of the locally circulated IBV could be a reason for currents vaccination failure.