The adaptation of H5N1 avian influenza viruses to human poses a great threat to public health. Previous studies indicate the adaptive mutations in viral polymerase of avian influenza viruses are major contributors in overcoming the host species barrier, with the majority of mammalian adaptive mutations occurring in the PB2 protein. However, the adaptive mutations in the PA protein of the H5N1 a...

Infection of poultry with diverse lineages of H5N2 avian influenza viruses has been documented for over three decades in different parts of the world, with limited outbreaks caused by this highly pathogenic avian influenza virus. In the present study, three avian H5N2 influenza viruses, A/chicken/Shijiazhuang/1209/2013, A/chicken/Chiping/0321/2014, and A/chicken/Laiwu/0313/2014, were isolated f...

Due to the increased frequency of interspecies transmission of avian influenza viruses, studies designed to identify the molecular determinants that could lead to an expansion of the host range have been increased. A variety of mouse-based mammalian-adaptation studies of avian influenza viruses have provided insight into the genetic alterations of various avian influenza subtypes that may contr...

Pandemic influenza remains a serious public health threat and the processes involved in the evolutionary emergence of pandemic influenza strains remain incompletely understood. Here, we develop a stochastic model for the evolutionary emergence of pandemic influenza, and use it to address three main questions. (i) What is the minimum annual number of avian influenza virus infections required in ...

Nigeria has had multiple incursions of highly pathogenic avian influenza A (HPAI) H5N1 virus into its poultry population since 2006. This study aimed to determine if Nigerians exposed to poultry had evidence of avian influenza virus transmission to man. Between 2008 and 2010, 316 adult farmers and open market workers and 54 age-group matched, non-animal exposed controls were enrolled in a prosp...

the present study was aimed to construct a fusion plasmid harboring the extracellular domain of the influenza a m2-protein (m2e), which was fused to the n-terminus of the truncated hsp70 (hsp70359–610) molecule as a new approach for future vaccine research against influenza a. the amplified fragments, m2e and hsp70359-610 genes, were gel-purified. the products were then single digested with bam...

backgrounds and objectives: classified as low pathogenic avian influenza (lpai) viruses, the h9n2 subtype causes severe respiratory disease in poultry farms and occasional respiratory disease in humans. in this study, the neuraminidase (na) gene of three avian influenza (ai) h9n2 strains isolated from poultry farms in iran during 2010-11, as well as other reported iranian h9n2 isolates, were ge...

background and aims: avian influenza (ai) h9n2 subtype was first reported to infect turkeys in the united states in 1966 and has been panzootic in eurasia. in iran, the h9n2 virus was first isolated from broiler chickens in 1998 in ghazvin province and it is the most prevalent subtype of influenza virus in poultry industry in iran at the present time. materials and methods: in this study, we se...

Avian influenza virus (AIV) infection is a major cause of bird or human mortality and morbidity, therefore the rapid identification of the virus is of important clinical and epidemiological implication. Methods: A multiplex Reverse Transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) was optimized for the detection of influenza A virus and the H5 and H9 subtypes. The influenza type A specific primers were directed to t...

Avian influenza is an infection caused by the H5N1 virus. The infection is highly contagious among birds, and only a few known cases of human avian influenza have been documented. However, healthcare experts around the world are concerned that mutation or genetic exchange with more commonly transmitted human influenza viruses could result in a pandemic of avian influenza. Their concern remains ...