Use of Avian Adeno-Associated Virus for the Delivery of Transgenes to Pekin Duck Cells in vitro and in vivo

The Pekin duck was domesticated between 4000 and 10,000 years ago from the Mallard duck and is the predominate meat type duck in the world (Cherry and Morris, 2008). The global production of waterfowl is a rapidly growing industry. Total meat duck production increased from 2.9 million tons in 2000 to nearly 4.4 million tons in 2013, a growth rate of 3.2% per year, and further increased to 7.2 million tons in 2018, and valued at $19B in 2019 (IndexBox, 2019). Pekin ducks (Anas platyrhynchus domesticus) are the fastest growing poultry species growing from hatch to 4.5 kg market weight in as little as 28 days (Blois et al., 2019; Campbell et al., 2015; Cherry and Morris, 2008). Thus, there is a need to study the growth and reproduction of this economically important species. While Pekin duck biology is being explored by many researchers, there are fewer molecular tools available for duck compared to other poultry species and many fewer compared to mammalian systems. For example, one molecular tool commonly used to interrogate other systems are adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors. AAV vectors are being utilized by many researchers to deliver transgenes to target tissues or cells and for genetic manipulation. Recently, avian adeno-associated virus (A3V) has been used to deliver genes to the cells and neurons of the domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus). Here, we show that A3V can be used to deliver genes to Pekin duck neurons and cells in culture. Together, these results suggest that A3V will be a useful molecular tool in Pekin duck research. Summary StatementHere we demonstrate the use of viral vectors to deliver transgenes to Pekin duck cells. These vectors can be used to advance understanding of reproduction in this economically important species.