Kraidi, Q. A., A. G. Langeroudi, O. Madadgar & V. Karimi, 2017.

Prevalence of AIV subtype H9 among poultry with respiratory signs in Iraq.

Bulg. J. Vet. Med., 20, No 4, 367–376.    DOI: 10.15547/bjvm.1022

The H9N2 avian influenza A viruses (AIV) have been recorded in Eurasia for several years. In this study, the prevalence of the circulated H9 subtype in the poultry population in middle and south of Iraq provinces was studied during a period from September 2014 to June 2015. Samples were collected from one hundred broiler flocks with respiratory signs from seven provinces. The detection and identification of virus were carried out by using highly sensitive method, Taqman Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction, which has been increasingly used for detecting avian pathogens in recent years. The prevalence of H9 subtype in 16% of the infected flocks was reported, and the results revealed that there was a significant difference (P<0.05) in the prevalence rate of H9 subtype among broiler flocks in Al-Basra, Al-Qadisyia and An-Najaf provinces (14.28%, 20% and 23.80%, respectively) as compared to other provinces, while An-Najaf province had the highest prevalence rate (23.80%) among all other provinces. The H9 subtype has been recorded for the first time in broiler flocks of Al-Basra and Wasit with lower prevalence rate in Wasit (10%). The prevalence of the H9 virus infection in the winter (75%) was higher than that in summer (25%). Since the provinces are in the vicinity of the Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait with H9 infection records, results of this study indicate circulation of AIV between these countries and in the larger scale, Middle East. This can be very important due to the presence of migratory birds coming from Russia and China and stay in winter months in the marshes of Al-Basra and consequently, AIV transportation to the other parts of the world.

Key words: avian influenza, Iraq, molecular detection, prevalence