Replication and adaptation of hydro pericardium virus (adenovirus-4) on QT-35 cell line

Hydropericardium syndrome (HPS) is a contagious disease of young chicken caused by a DNA virus belonging to family Adenoviridae. It is an economically important poultry disease worldwide. In this study, 3 cell lines i.e., Vero, BHK-21 and QT-35, were compared in order to determine their susceptibility to Adenovirus. In the first phase of the study, primary chicken cultures i.e., fibroblast, liver and kidneys,were used for growth of the virus. Adenovirus showed cytopathic effects on liver primary culture only. It was confirmed by agar gel precipitation test (AGPT) against known positive HPS serum. Other cell lines didn´t show any cytopathic effects (CPE) even after ten passages of virus on primary liver culture. In the second phase of study, the adapted virus was used to infect mono ayer of Vero, BHK-21 and QT-35 cell lines. For adaptation of virus on cell lines, virus was repeatedly passaged five times on each cell line separately. Only QT-35 showed CPEs indicating a successful adaptation of HPS virus for growth on QT-35. Afterwards, viral load was determined by Tissue Culture Infective Dose TCID₅₀.