Conventional and molecular detection of Infectious Bursal disease virus in broiler chicken

The present study was conducted to compare the different diagnostic methods for detection of infectious bursal disease virus (ibdv) in broiler chickens. for this purpose a total of 100 samples of bursa of fabricius were collected from poultry flocks of punjab pakistan during the period (from december 2012 to may 2013). ibdv was isolated from field samples by inoculating the suspected bursa samples in embryonated chicken eggs through chorioallantoic membrane. virus was confirmed through conventional serological method agar gel precipitation test and molecular method reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (rt-pcr). the 743-bp region of vp2 gene of ibdv was amplified by using specific primers. agar gel precipitation test revealed the presence of ibdv in 25 (71.4%) field infected bursal samples and rt-pcr revealed the ibdv in 28 (80%) samples. rt-pcr is more accurate,sensitive and specific method for rapid detection of infectious bursal disease virus from field samples. copyright 2016 zoological society of pakistan.