Fig. 5.

Trachea ciliostasis scores (A) and viral loads detected in the trachea (B), lung (C), and kidney (D) in chickens experimentally challenged with rYN, rYN-S-aYN, rYN-5a-aYN, and the control. Bars indicate the mean ± SD. Mean ciliostasis scores per group were calculated from ciliostasis scores of 2 euthanized bird at 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 dpc (9 tracheal rings per individual bird) from each group. Score of 0: the cilia in the complete tracheal section showed movement; score of 1: 75–100% cilia of the tracheal section showed movement; score of 2: 50–75% cilia of the trachea showed movement; score of 3: 25–50% cilia of the trachea section showed movement; score of 4: less than 25% cilia of the trachea section showed movement or no movement at all. For each group, the average ciliostasis score was calculated. Viral load qPCR data comes from 2 euthanized bird at 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 dpc from each group, includes three technical replicates/animal. Data were statistically evaluated by two-way ANOVA test adjusted for post-hoc analysis, followed by Bonferroni's multiple comparison tests. Statistical significance was considered as follows: significant at p < 0.05 (*), highly significant at p < 0.01 (**), and very highly significant at p < 0.001 (***).