Duck intestinal organoids: A novel model for waterfowl parvovirus infection and immune responses investigation

Research on waterfowl parvovirus mainly uses waterfowl embryos and waterfowl fibroblasts. However, waterfowl embryos are difficult to handle, and waterfowl fibroblasts are not the real target cells of the virus and may not reflect the actual in vivo environment, which makes it difficult to get accurate results. In this study, we firstly developed duck intestinal organoids, which contain different types of epithelial cells, including enterocytes, intestinal stem cells, Paneth cells, and goblet cells etc. To verify the susceptibility of intestinal organoids to waterfowl parvovirus, duck intestinal organoid monolayers and apical-out intestinal organoids were established and then inoculated with novel goose parvovirus (NGPV). Our results illustrated that both intestinal organoids models can support robust NGPV replication. In addition, NGPV infection significantly upregulates tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6, interferon-α (IFN-α), IFN-β, and myxovirus resistance protein (MX) expression. Collectively, we firstly established duck intestinal organoid monolayers and apical-out intestinal organoids for waterfowl parvovirus infection and immune responses investigation. This study provides a novel and reliable infection model for future parvovirus research.