the humoral immunization potential of panax ginseng polysaccharide (gps) against h9n2 avian influenza virus (h9n2 aiv) in chickens was investigated. the effects of gps treatment before and during h9n2 aiv infection were determined in chicken embryo fibroblast (cef) by mtt (3(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 3-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) assays and quantitative rt-pcr analysis of mhc and cytokine...

H9N2 avian influenza viruses are enzootic in poultry across Asia and North Africa, where they pose a threat to human health as both zoonotic agents and potential pandemic candidates. Poultry vaccination against H9N2 viruses has been employed in many regions; however, vaccine effectiveness is frequently compromised due to antigenic drift arising from amino acid substitutions in the major influen...

Genetic changes in avian influenza viruses influence their infectivity, virulence and transmission. Recently we identified a novel genotype of H9N2 viruses in widespread circulation in poultry in Pakistan that contained polymerases (PB2, PB1 and PA) and non-structural (NS) gene segments identical to highly pathogenic H7N3 viruses. Here, we investigated the potential of these viruses to cause di...

Both H9N2 avian influenza and 2009 pandemic H1N1 viruses (pH1N1) are able to infect humans and swine, which has raised concerns that novel reassortant H9 viruses with pH1N1 genes might be generated in these hosts by reassortment. Although previous studies have demonstrated that reassortant H9 viruses with pH1N1 genes show increased virulence in mice and transmissibility in ferrets, the virulenc...

Current commercial H9 avian influenza vaccines cannot provide satisfactory protective immunity against antigenic variant influenza viruses in ducks. Poly I:C, when used as an adjuvant, improves humoral and cellular immunity in many animals but has not been tested in ducks. In this study, we investigated the protective efficacy of Poly I:C as an adjuvant for an inactivated H9N2 Avian influenza v...

Infection of chickens with low pathogenicity avian influenza (LPAI) virus results in mild clinical signs while infection with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses causes death of the birds within 36-48 hours. Since natural killer (NK) cells have been shown to play an important role in influenza-specific immunity, we hypothesise that NK cells are involved in this difference in pathog...

Avian influenza is a significant economic burden on the poultry industry in geographical regions where it is enzootic. It also poses a public health concern when avian influenza subtypes infect humans, often with high mortality. Understanding viral genetic factors which positively contribute to influenza A virus (IAV) fitness - infectivity, spread and pathogenesis - is of great importance both ...

In August 2012, A/chicken/Vietnam/OIE-2215/2012 (H5N2) was isolated from a chicken in a live bird market (LBM) in Northern Vietnam. Intravenous pathogenicity test revealed that this virus is highly pathogenic in chickens. The PA, HA, NP and M, PB2 and NA, and PB1 and NS genes of the isolate were phylogenetically closely related to those of A/duck/Vietnam/OIE-2202/2012 (H5N1) of clade 2.3.2.1, A...

AIM To develop a mucosal inactivated vaccines for Newcastle disease (ND) and H9N2 viruses to protect against these viruses at sites of infections through mucosal immunity. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this study, we prepared two new formulations for mucosal bivalent inactivated vaccine formulations for Newcastle and Avian Influenza (H9N2) based on the use of nanoparticles and polymer adjuvants. T...

H9N2 avian influenza viruses continue to circulate worldwide; in Asia, H9N2 viruses have caused disease outbreaks and established lineages in land-based poultry. Some H9N2 strains are considered potentially pandemic because they have infected humans causing mild respiratory disease. In addition, some of these H9N2 strains replicate efficiently in mice without prior adaptation suggesting that H9...