Volume 26, Number 2—February 2020
Research
Porcine Deltacoronavirus Infection and Transmission in Poultry, United States1
Table 1
Prevalence of diarrhea in uninfected birds and birds experimentally inoculated with porcine deltacoronavirus*
| Birds, total† |
n = 49 |
n = 41 |
n = 41 |
n = 33 |
n = 33 |
n = 33 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicks, n = 25 | ||||||
| Uninfected | 0/15 | 1/8‡ | 2/8‡ | 1/6‡ | 0/6 | 0/6 |
| Infected | 7/10 | 5/8 | 5/8 | 1/6 | 0/6 | 1/6 |
| Sentinel§ |
NA |
1/5 |
3/5 |
1/5 |
0/5 |
0/5 |
| Poults, n = 25 | ||||||
| Uninfected | 0/14¶ | 0/7 | 0/7 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 |
| Infected | 5/10 | 2/8 | 6/8 | 5/6 | 4/6 | 5/6 |
| Sentinel§ | NA | 0/5 | 1/5 | 4/5 | 5/5 | 5/5 |
*Uninfected birds were inoculated with small intestine contents from uninfected gnotobiotic pig. Fecal consistency scored on a scale of 0–3: 0, solid; 1, pasty; 2, semiliquid; 3. liquid. Values expressed as number of birds with a cloacal swab score of ≥2/total number of birds in the room on the indicated day postinoculation (dpi). NA, not applicable.
†Two birds from each group, excluding sentinels, were randomly removed for necropsy at 3 dpi and 7 dpi .
‡One chick in uninfected group consistently had a score of 3 for 7 d, another briefly scored a 2 at 7 dpi; both tested negative for porcine deltacoronavirus, Salmonella, and for parasites via fecal float analysis. Cause of diarrhea was unknown.
§We removed 5 uninfected birds as sentinels and allowed them to comingle with infected birds at 2 dpi for the duration of the experiment.
¶One poult in uninfected group died before inoculation.
1Preliminary results of this study were presented at the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases, December 1–4, 2018, Chicago, Illinois, USA.