Morphologic observations of new type gosling viral enteritis virus (NGVEV) virulent isolate in infected duck embryo fibroblasts.

The morphogenesis of the new type gosling viral enteritis virus (NGVEV) and the characteristic ultrastructural changes in the duck embryo fibroblasts (DEFs) were investigated by ultrathin sectioning and transmission electron microscopy after monolayer DEFs were experimentally infected with a virulent NGVEV strain. The investigation demonstrated that typical NGVEV particles were round, with a diameter ranging from 75 nm to 90 nm and that they were present in both the nucleus and cytoplasm of the infected DEFs. The mature virions contained nucleocapsids and nucleic acids. The virion penetrated the DEF, replicated, and matured in the nucleus, and they were finally released into the extracellular space via budding and disruption of the cytoplasmic membrane. With the appearance of progeny NGVEV, certain virus-related structures that were densely electron stained, which were circular, U-shaped, or irregular in appearance, could be observed in the cytoplasm of the infected DEFs. In this research, we first detected three types of intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies during the NGVEV infection, which always contained a number of NGVEV particles. Furthermore, we detected that NGVEV could induce apoptosis in DEFs, which had not been reported previously. The morphologic changes of apoptosis included shrinking of the apoptotic cells, chromatin condensation and margination, appearance of vacuoles on the cytoplasmic membrane, and the formation of apoptotic bodies. The mitochondria were ultracondensed and aggregated into compact clusters during apoptosis.