Occurrence of avian infectious bronchitis virus in the tissues of experimentally infected chickens

Abstract

Eighteen chickens 4 weeks of age that had been experimentally infected with infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) were killed, two each day, from 1 to 9 days after inoculation. IBV was isolated in chick embryos from the trachea (14 times), lung (11), heart and kidneys (10 each), spleen and liver (7 each) and blood (once). The virus was recoverable on the ninth day after inoculation. The virus was isolated with a similar frequency from 8 birds that died from 2 to 10 days after inoculation. The tissue samples were held at -15°C, for as long as 11 days, before inoculation into chick embryos. IBV was readily recovered from this material.