Goose haemorrhagic hepatitis caused by a new subtype duck hepatitis type 1 virus

Duck hepatitis type 1 virus (DHV-1) causes a fatal disease in ducklings but there is no report of DHV-1 isolation from goose. Recently, cases of a new disease in overfeeding geese were reported from China. The cases were characterized by haemorrhagic hepatitis lesions on liver after post mortem examinations. The flocks showed about 20-40% morbidity and less than 5% mortality. The histopathological lesions showed destroyed structure of hepatocytic tissue, severe vacuolation and necrosis of hepatocytes. Viral antigen could be detected by monoclonal antibody against duck hepatitis type 1 virus (DHV-1) in the cytoplasm of positive hepatocytes. PCR amplified viral sequences with primers specific for recent Korean-like duck hepatitis type 1 virus (DHV-1C). Alignment of the complete sequence demonstrated that the isolated JT strain from goose exhibiting 95.9% identity to DHV-1C AP-03337 strain, and only 75.3% to classical DHV-1 virus. 80% goslings developed haemorrhagic hepatitis after infection with JT strain. This is the first report on the involvement of a DHV-1 virus in goose.