Potential of Genotype VII Newcastle Disease Viruses to Cause Differential 1 Infections in Chickens and Ducks 2 Comparative pathobiology of genotype VII NDV in ducks and chickens 3

Chunchun Meng 1,, Zaib Ur Rehman 1,, Kaichun Liu, Xusheng Qiu , Lei Tan , Yingjie Sun , 4 Ying Liao , Cuiping Song , Shengqing Yu , Zhuang Ding , Venugopal Nair , Muhammad Munir , 5 Chan Ding 6 Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute (SHVRI), Chinese Academy of Agricultural 7 Sciences (CAAS), Shanghai, 200241, China 8 Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Jilin 9 University, Changchun, 130062, China 10 Avian Viral Diseases Programme, The Pirbright Institute, Surrey, GU24 0NF, United 11 Kingdom 12 Biomedical and Life Sciences, Furness College, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YG, 13 United Kingdom 14 Jiangsu Co-innovation Center for Prevention and Control of Important Animal Infectious 15 Diseases and Zoonoses, Yangzhou, 225009, China 16 Shanghai Key laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, Shanghai, 200241, China 17 These authors contributed equally to this work. 18  Corresponding author: Chan Ding: shoveldeen@shvri.ac.cn 19