Abstract:
Newcastle disease virus(NDV) is one of the most important infectious disease pathogens in poultry. The genotype Ⅵ NDV is widely prevalent in pigeon flocks, causing significant economic losses to pigeon industry. In order to better understand the transmission dynamics of genotype Ⅵ NDV in different geographical regions and hosts in the world, the isolation and identification, next-gene-ration sequencing, construction of complete F gene phylogenetic tree, and Bayesian systematic dynamics analysis of the NDV were performed. The results indicated that four NDV isolates in Guangxi were obtained, and all of them were genotype Ⅵ. Further spatial-temporal analysis showed that the time to the most recent common ancestor of genotype Ⅵ NDV was 1972(95% CI: 1965~1978), and the average evolutionary rate was 1.43×10
-3 substitution/site/year(95% CI: 1.27×10
-3~1.59×10
-3). Italy was the early spillover transmission center of genotype Ⅵ NDV in Europe, and the virus was transmitted to China from Europe, and then East China and South China became the main transmission centers in China. The most important host for virus transmission is pigeons, but cross-species transmission from pigeons(Columba livia) to wild birds and chickens(Gallus gallus), and from wild birds to quails(Coturnix coturnix) is also present. The results show that the genotype Ⅵ NDV is evolving rapidly and has a potential threat as a mutation reservoir. Based on the concept of “One Health”, active surveillance should be strengthened worldwide, and poultry management strategies should be improved to avoid direct and indirect contact between different poultry and between different poultry and wild birds. These data will help us to understand the origin, transmission and evolution of genotype Ⅵ NDV, and provide scientific basis for the development of corresponding prevention and control strategies.