New efficient method developed to tackle avian infectious bronchitis virus

Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) is a coronavirus that causes respiratory disease infectious bronchitis. IBV is a major problem for the global poultry industry, causing significant welfare issues and economic losses. IBV can rapidly mutate and existing vaccines offer poor cross-protection against different strains. This makes controlling the virus very difficult.

The new method, published in PloS One, offers a simplified, rapid approach to investigate the genetic biology of IBV. It can also be rapidly applied to the study of emerging IBV variants, which may help in the development of targeted vaccines.

This new method also has potential to be useful in the study of other coronaviruses and large genome viruses, which could help accelerate research and development of vaccines and treatments for various viral diseases.

Article: Bilotti, K., Keep. S., Sikkema, A.P., et al. (2024) One-pot Golden Gate Assembly of an avian infectious bronchitis virus reverse genetics system. PLoS ONE 19(7): e0307655. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0307655

For further information, see: The Pirbright Institute’s recent blog post.