Detection of variant infectious bronchitis viruses in Sri Lanka (2012-2015)

Poultry production is an important sector of agriculture in Sri Lanka; however, there is a lack of information regarding circulation of infectious bronchitis virus (IBV). RNA was extracted from chicken tissues, subjected to IBV S1 RT-PCR, and sequenced. Overall, 19 out of 34 (55.88 %) samples were IBV positive and contained the genotype 793B (n = 13; 68.42 %), D274 (n = 4; 21.05 %) or Massachusetts (n = 2; 10.53 %). All three genotypes contained at least one strain with less than 99 % nucleotide sequence identity to the corresponding vaccine strains. This report identified co-circulation of IBV strains 793B, Massachusetts and D274, in Sri Lanka that are divergent from the respective vaccine strains.