Molecular identification of astrovirus in turkey in Zanjan province, Iran

Turkey Astroviruses (TAstV) is one of the key factors in the emergence of the enteritis syndromes in poults. The aim of this study was to investigate the astrovirus contamination of some industrial turkey flocks with diarrhea in Zanjan province of Iran by RT-PCR and then to determine the genome sequence of the detected viruses. For this purpose, Samples were collected from 30 suspected turkeys' flocks less than 3 weeks ages with clinical signs, diarrhea or fecal pest around vent during 2018-2019. From each suspected flock, randomly ten turkeys were collected and after euthanized, post mortem performed and probable gross lesions were noted in special work sheet. The RT- PCR was performed. The analysis of the nucleotide sequences and their related amino acids was performed. The virus was detected in eight (66/26%) out of 30 flocks.The nucleotid sequences obtained in this study were compared with the sequences in the gene bank and the phylogenetic tree was drawn, ased on the polymerase genes and amino acid sequences obtained from GenBank all eight isolates obtained in this study were in the branch of Astrovirus turkey 2 ( TAstv). These strains most closely resembled the Polish Astrovirus turkey 2 strains.It was concluded that astrovirus play roles in turkeys flock enteritis and farmer should consider prevention and control of turkey's intestinal diseases.