Characterization of Newcastle disease viruses isolated from field cases in Japan.

Seven Newcastle disease viruses isolated in Japan from 1930 to 1984 were cloned on chicken embryo fibroblasts (CEFs) and characterized biologically. All seven produced two or more types of plaques on CEFs. The plaques were classified into four types. Plaque cloning was carried out five times, and 22 cloned viruses were established. The biological characters of the cloned viruses suggested that the strains contain different clones and that their clones are different even among close cases, such as G strain and H strain.