Molecular characterisation of Turkey pox virus from recurring infection in Meghalaya

Poxvirus infection causes huge economic impacts in the poultry industry in terms of loss in egg production, reduced weight gain etc. We present studies on molecular characterisation by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), to detect virus from recurring poxvirus infection in Turkey. The avipox specific PCR was performed and 578 bp product of P4b gene was amplified. The RFLP analysis of the P4b gene with EcoRV showed all the samples have identical restriction patterns. The sequencing of the P4b gene from turkey samples did not reveal any differences in the nucleotide sequence except in one or two base pairs suggesting that virus belongs to the clade A similar to fowlpoxvirus (FPV).