Authors: Suriani, M.N., Norfaizah, A.H.(*), Sharifah, S.H., Ong, G.H., Rafidah, A.J. and N.Asiah(*)
Veterinary Research Institute, 59, Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, 31400, Ipoh, Perak.
Regional Veterinary Laboratory, Department of Veterinary Services, 46630, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Abstract
Highly pathogenic Avian influenza or bird flu is a rapidly spreading fatal disease in the avian species as well as in human. An early detection of the virus will improve the control of influenza in animal and human. Routinely bird flu virus infection is diagnosed by conventional method which requires several days to produce a conclusive result.
In this paper we report a practical approach for the isolation and molecular identification of bird flu virus from duck cloaca swabs submitted during the surveillance of bird flu in Malaysia. The isolation of the virus was conducted in embryonating SPF (specific pathogen free) chicken eggs which showed embryonic eggs death after the second passage.
Haemagglutination activities were observed without any inhibition activities using specific antisera for Newcastle disease, Adenovirus and subtype specific antisera for bird flu (H3, H5, H7 and H9).
Due to this limitation, real time polymerase chain reaction (RRT-PCR) for detection of bird flu infection which allow rapid differentiation between low-pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) and HPAI viruses was established. RRT-PCR was performed using published universal primers of matrix gene and specific primer which were designed to amplify the HA genes of H5, H6, H9 and H7 subtypes.
