{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,11]],"date-time":"2026-05-11T18:12:03Z","timestamp":1778523123435,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":39,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,11]],"date-time":"2026-05-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1778457600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\">\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Inclusion body hepatitis is still a threat to broiler farms and recent findings indicate that FAdV-8a is re-emerging in\u2002several areas. Limited data are\u2002available on circulating strains in the Middle East. The objectives of this work were to characterize\u2002an Iraqi field isolate and to study its effect on various tissues in experimentally infected broilers.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec002\">\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The experiment was conducted on a total of 95 Cobb-500 chicks that were randomly assigned into infected and control\u2002groups. At 14 days of age, the chicks were inoculated\u2002with the isolate ocularly. Birds were necropsied 21 days post-infection, with organ weights, gross and histopathological findings, and qPCR data targeting the hexon gene used to assess the infection.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec003\">\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Infected birds\u2002had increased liver and spleen sizes indicated by an increase in the organ\/body weight ratio. The liver was pale and swollen, spleens were increased in size and dark, the superficial area of the kidney presented a diffuse pallor while the changes in the heart were\u2002negligible. Microscopically, there were severe hepatic degeneration and\u2002necrosis, noticeable splenic lymphoid depletion, and tubular injury in the kidneys consistent with secondary changes, with mild cardiac alterations. These results were further confirmed by qPCR analysis, which demonstrated relatively high viral genome copies in liver and moderate copies in spleen,\u2002whereas minimal copy numbers were found in heart.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec004\">\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The hepatic involvement was the predominant disease picture\u2002induced in chickens by the Iraqi FAdV-8a isolate, with associated splenic changes and mild renal histological alterations and slight cardiac involvement. The infection was non-fatal to the controlled animals, indicating low\u2002virulence. These results provide important regional information that\u2002can help direct monitoring and serotype-specific prevention strategies.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0348443","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,11]],"date-time":"2026-05-11T17:38:53Z","timestamp":1778521133000},"page":"e0348443","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Molecular characterization and tissue tropism of an Iraqi field isolate of fowl adenovirus serotype 8a in broiler chickens"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1540-5441","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Mohammed Abdullah","family":"Hamad","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ahmed J.","family":"Alfahdawi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Basim Mohamed","family":"Manswr","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"pone.0348443.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2024.1490255","article-title":"Pathological investigation, molecular characterization and first-time isolation of the predominant serotypes of fowl adenovirus (FAdV-D and E) from commercial poultry in Bangladesh","volume":"15","author":"M Sadekuzzaman","year":"2024","journal-title":"Frontiers in Microbiology"},{"issue":"5","key":"pone.0348443.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"103642","DOI":"10.1016\/j.psj.2024.103642","article-title":"Genomic characterization and pathogenicity of a novel fowl adenovirus serotype 11 isolated from chickens with inclusion body 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