Genetic differences in susceptibility to a mixture of avian infectious bronchitis virus and Escherichia coli.

Two-week-old chickens of 9 inbred and partially inbred lines of chickens were challenged intranasally with a mixed infection consisting of a pool of virulent strains of infectious bronchitis virus and a pool of pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli. 2. Wide differences in mortality were observed in the different lines, ranging from 3% in a Brown Leghorn line to 87% in White Leghorn line 7(2). 3. Experiments involving challenge with E. coli alone or virus alone suggested that this variation reflected resistance to the virus rather than to E. coli. 4. Reciprocal F1 matings suggested these differences in mortality were not attributable to maternal effects and indicated that the inheritance of resistance was fully dominant. 5. The pattern of mortality in F2 and backcross progeny of matings was compatible with the inheritance of a dominant autosomal resistance gene and showed no evidence of association with the major histocompatibility complex.