Poxvirus infection in Hungarian great tits (Parus major): case report.

From a total of 1819 great tits (Parus major) ringed in 2007 in Pilis Mountains, Hungary, 15 birds presented nodular proliferative lesions on different areas of the head and eyelids, suggesting a poxvirus infection. Three birds were submitted for analysis. The presence of avipoxvirus infection was confirmed by histopathology, electron microscopy (EM) and a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based technique. Nucleotide sequence analysis of a 428 base pairs (bp) fragment of the viral 4b core protein gene revealed 100% identity between two of the Hungarian isolates (PM9 HUN, PM33 HUN) and two great tit poxvirus strains isolated in Norway in 1973 (GTV A256, GTV A311). The third Hungarian isolate (PM34 HUN) was more closely related to a different Norwegian isolate (GTVA310) than to the Hungarian isolates. The nucleotide sequence analysis of a shorter fragment of the viral 4b core protein (227 bp) gene revealed 100% identity between the Hungarian isolates, the same Norwegian isolates and a great tit poxvirus strain detected in Austria in 2007.