Human infections with H5, H7, and H9 avian influenza viruses are well documented. Exposure to poultry is the most important risk factor for humans becoming infected with these viruses. Data on human infection with other low pathogenicity avian influenza viruses is sparse but suggests that such infections may occur. Lebanon is a Mediterranean country lying under two major migratory birds flyways and is home to many wild and domestic bird species. Previous reports from this country demonstrated that low pathogenicity avian influenza viruses are in circulation but highly pathogenic H5N1 viruses were not reported. In order to study the extent of human infection with avian influenza viruses in Lebanon, we carried out a seroprevalence cross-sectional study into which 200 poultry-exposed individuals and 50 non-exposed controls were enrolled. We obtained their sera and tested it for the presence of antibodies against avian influenza viruses types H4 through H16 and used a questionnaire to collect exposure data. Our microneutralization assay results suggested that backyard poultry growers may have been previously infected with H4 and H11 avian influenza viruses. We confirmed these results by using a horse red blood cells hemagglutination inhibition assay. Our data also showed that farmers with antibodies against each virus type clustered in a small geographic area suggesting that unrecognized outbreaks among birds may have led to these human infections. In conclusion, this study suggests that occupational exposure to chicken is a risk factor for infection with avian influenza especially among backyard growers and that H4 and H11 influenza viruses may possess the ability to cross the species barrier to infect humans.

The objective of this work is to compare the phenotypic and virulence genes characteristics in human and chicken isolates of Proteus mirabilis. The bacterial examination of 50 livers of individual broilers, marketed by four major outlets, revealed a high recovery of P. mirabilis (66%), and a low recovery frequency of Salmonella spp. (4%), Serratia odorifera (2%), Citrobacter brakii (2%), and Providencia stuartii (2%). The phenotypic biochemical characterization of the recovered 33 chicken isolates of P. mirabilis were compared to 30 human isolates (23 urinary and six respiratory isolates). The comparison revealed significant differences in the presence of gelatinase enzyme (100% presence in chicken isolates versus 91.3 and 83.3% presence in human urinary and respiratory isolates, respectively, P,0.05). The H 2 S production occurred in 100% of chicken isolates versus 95.6 and 66.7% presence in human urinary and respiratory isolates, respectively, P,0.05). The other 17 biochemical characteristics did not differ significantly among the three groups of isolates (P.0.05). Two virulence genes, the mrpA and FliL, were having a typical 100% presence in randomly selected isolates of P. mirabilis recovered from chicken livers (N510) versus isolates recovered from urinary (N55) and respiratory specimens of humans (N55) (P.0.05). The average percentage similarity of mrpA gene nucleotide sequence of poultry isolates to human urinary and respiratory isolates was 93.2 and 97.5-%, respectively. The high similarity in phenotypic characteristics, associated with typical frequency of presence of two virulence genes, and high similarity in sequences of mrpA gene among poultry versus human P. mirabilis isolates justifies future investigations targeting the evaluation of adaptable pathogenicity of avian Proteus mirabilis isolates to mammalian hosts.

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Aim: To evaluate the impact of Eucalyptus and peppermint essential oils on immune modulation and production of broiler chicken challenged with a molecularly characterized velogenic NewCastle disease virus (vNDV). Methods and Results: The experimental design included five treatments with three replicate pens/treatment comprised of 12-day-old broilers chicks/replicate. The five treatments included a positive challenge control (non-NDV vaccinated/ nonessential oil treated/challenged) (NNEOC), a negative challenge control (NDV vaccinated/essential oil treated/unchallenged) (VEOU), a non-NDV vaccinated/ essential oil treated/challenged (NEOC), a NDV vaccinated/nonessential oil treated/challenged (VNEOC) and a NDV vaccinated/essential oil treated/ challenged (VEOC). The lowest mean survival rate (0Á0%) and lowest production performance were obtained by the positive challenge control, while the best mean survival (93Á3%) and average body weight (2649 g) were obtained by the negative challenge controls (P < 0Á05). Among the three others challenged treatments, the best mean survival (79Á2%), highest mean body weight at 42 days of age (2445 g), the lowest feed conversion ratio (1Á60) and the highest serum conversion immunopotentiation at 35 days of age determined by ELISA and hemagglutination titres were obtained by the VEOC birds compared with respective means obtained by birds of the NEOC and VNEOC treatments (P < 0Á05). Conclusions:The results supported the possibility of using the essential oils of Eucalyptus and Peppermint in broilers to immunopotentiate the response to vaccination against velogenic NDV, helping in significant improvement of survival and production. Significance and Impact of the Study: This study provides information about the potential use of essential oils of eucalyptus and peppermint that can be exploited as commercial immunopotentiators for the protection of NDVvaccinated broiler chickens against economic velogenic NDV.