Abstract

Newcastle disease (ND) is a very contagious disease in chickens and turkeys and one of the most important diseases of poultry in the world. The infection causes sudden death with high mortality. In Indonesia, Newcastle disease in recent years showed symptoms slightly different from previous symptoms of this disease. NDV infection of genotipe VII has been reported to cause this outbreak in several commercial poultry farms in Indonesia. This study aimed to isolate and identify the recent ND virus and determine group of genotype of ND in Indonesia for the development of seed of ND vaccines expected to be more effective in the control of Newcastle disease in the field. The method used in this study includes the collection of samples from the field, ND virus isolation, RT-PCR and DNA sequencing of the F and HN genes of ND viruses. Our result showed that six isolates belong to genotype VII of ND viruses, one isolate belong to genotype VI and the other isolate belong to genotype I. The prediction of pathotypes of amino acids sequence on F gene of NDV indicated that seven isolates have motif R-R-R-K-R and R-R-Q-K-R which is a marker for pathotype for velogenic of ND viruses. The cleavage site of amino acid sequences from one isolate (RIVS isolate) has G-K-Q-G-R-L which is lentogenic pathotype of NDV. This study indicated that genotype VII viruses were predominant virus circulating in the field and we suggested the update of master seed vaccine of ND in Indonesia.

Key words: New castle disease (ND), genotype VII, phylogenetic analysis.