The present study deals with propagation of chicken anemia virus (CAV) in primary chicken embryo fibroblast (CEF) as well as the continuous cell lines African green monkey kidney (VERO) and baby hamster kidney (BHK) for 10 successive passages. The high virus titers were 7.6 log10TCID50 /ml in VERO and 7.5 log10TCID50 /ml in CEF while BHK yielded virus titer of 6 log10TCID50 /ml. The cytopathic effect (CPE) was characterized by cell detachment and subsequent vacculation of the
infected monolayers started by 5th to 7th day post infection (DPI) then began to appear more early by
the successive passage to reach the 2nd DPI within all cell cultures. VERO cells yielding the highest virus titer were that one of choice to study the growth kinetics of CAV showing that the highest total virus yield could be obtained 72 hours post cell infection. Direct fluorescent antibody technique and electron microscopy were carried out to ensure the presence of CAV in different used cell cultures. These findings indicate the possibility of the use either CEF or VERO or BHK for CAV propagation
instead of the unavailable Marek’s disease cell culture (MDCC)