Organ culture studies on the efficiency of infection of chicken tissues with avian infectious bronchitis virus.

Long-term organ cultures of a range of tissues collected from specific pathogen-free chickens were employed to determine their susceptibility, and their capacity for subsequent virus production, following inoculation with avian infectious bronchitis (AIB) virus. When inoculated with approximately 2-0 log10 median ciliostatic doses (CD50) of a classical highly egg-adapted vaccine strain (H120) of AIB virus, 9 of 23 tissues were shown to be susceptible, namely the nasal turbinates, trachea, air sac membranes,lungsasal turbinates, trachea, air sac membranes, lungs, proventriculus mucosa, thyroid, kidney, ovary and oviduct. When the remaining 14 tissues were inoculated with a high dose of virus (6.8 log10 CD50), the conjunctiva, caecel tonsil, testis and bursa of Fabricius were susceptible whereas the oesophagus and cloaca responded minimally. Inoculation of the same range of tissues with a high or low dose of a field strain (HVI9) of AIB virus produced similar results, except for a number of individual variations in response, due possibly to strain differences in pathogenicity. Determinations of the minimal infectious dose requirements of the susceptible tissues revealed that the efficiency of infection with the H120 strain was highest for the nasal turbinate and tracheal tissues, and thereafter, in order of decreasing efficiency, were the air sac membranes, lung, oviduct, proventriculus mucosa, conjunctiva, kidney, ovary, bursa of Fabricius, thyroid, testis, caecal tonsil, cloaca and oesophagus. The relevance of these results is discussed in connection with the early events in the pathogenesis and the clinical syndrome of AIB infection in chickens.