Pathogenicity of Virulent Newcastle Disease Virus Strains from Different Avian Species in Geese

The pigeon,chicken,duck,and goose origin virulent Newcastle disease virus (NDV) strains and Chinese standard virulent NDV strain F48E8 were used to infect geese experimentally. The clinical signs,weight gain,antibody response,and virus shedding of infected geese were determined. The pathogenicity of virulent NDV strains of different avian origin in geese and the importance of geese in the epidemics of Newcastle disease (ND) were investigated. The pigeon origin JSP0204 strain had low or no pathogenicity to geese;they produced neither clinical signs of the disease nor obvious adverse effect on growth of infected geese (P0.05). Other strains, including chicken origin JSC0804 strain,duck origin JSD0812 strain,goose origin JSG0210 strain and F48E8 strain,could cause illness and death,both JSD0812 and F48E8 strains were highly pathogenic for goslings;they caused 100% mortality. Virus shedding was detectable in all infected goslings,but its period varied with strain infected. The results indicated that the pathogenicity of current epidemic virulent NDV strains for geese have generally increased,and further confirmed that the geese could play an important role in the epidemiology of ND.