Investigation of the molecular epidemiology of pigeon paramyxovirus (PPMVs) in South Africa

<p>Data for contigs blasted on NCBI generated from Ion Torrent NGS data assembly by de novo assembly to discover other viruses present in the sample and conduct further research through a viral metagenomic approach.  A total of thirty-six field samples and isolated viruses were initially examined using real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) targeting a partial fragment of the M and F gene. Among these, it was observed that the kidneys from recent clinical cases exhibited the highest viral loads. Conventional RT-PCR, Sanger DNA sequencing, virus isolation in QH9/2-1 quail cells and Ion Torrent Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) were applied, and the complete or partial genomes of twenty-one PPMVs were obtained for further analysis.  </p>