Objectives: Chicken infectious anemia virus (CIAV) is a ubiquitous resistant virus of chickens causing chicken infectious anemia disease and immunosuppression. It is a small DNA virus with a circular, covalently linked, negativesense single-stranded genome. The genome has 3 open reading frames encoding 3 viral proteins (VP1, VP2, and VP3). In the present study, samples from commercial broiler chickens from liver, spleen and thymus from Northeast Iran, were screened by PCR and VP2 gene from 14 samples were sequenced and their phylogenetically analyzed. Materials & Methods: 120 samples from commercial broiler chickens from liver, spleen and thymus in Northeast Iran, were screened by diagnostic primers and then in fourteen positive samples, VP2 gene were processed for nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequence analysis. The edited sequences, along with respected sequences deposited in genetic databases, were compared by multiple alignment and phylogenetic analysis tree, using Benedict software and clustal W program. For phylogenetic analysis blosum 30 matrix, neighbor-joining method with 1000 replicate for bootstrapping were employed. Results & Conclusion: Similarity and identity between fourteen Iranian sequences and their VP2 counterparts in genetic databases were defined. Based on deduced amino acid sequences of VP2 in phylogenetic tree, fourteen Iranian strains were clustered in two groups. Despite differences detected in deduced amino acid sequence of VP2 and clustering of Iranian strains in at least two clusters, it appears that genotyping based on this gene may not be a great help. It is the first molecular study of VP2 gene of Northeast Iran strains of CIAV amplified from viruses circulating in commercial broiler farms.

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