Outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 clade 2.3.2.1c in hunting falcons and kept wild birds in Dubai implicate intercontinental virus spread

Natural Reassortants of Potentially Zoonotic Avian Influenza Viruses H5N1 and H9N2 from Egypt Display Distinct Pathogenic Phenotypes in Experimentally Infected Chickens and Ferrets

“…Although ample opportunities for the exchange of genome segments between these two subtypes have been expected, no reassortants have been detected in Egypt so far, and both subtypes have maintained unchanged genotypes since their introduction in 2006 and 2010, respectively (19). This is surprising, since reassortment events between HPAIV H5N1, although of a clade different from that of the Egyptian viruses, and LPAIV H9N2 were reported from Dubai (20) and Bangladesh (21). A recent study using a reverse genetics-based system indicated at least partial genetic incompatibility of some genome segments of HPAIV H5N1 in the Egyptian LPAI H9N2 backbone (22).…”

Genetically Different Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Viruses in West Africa, 2015

“…To our knowledge, this clade has not been previously detected in Africa. Since 2009, this clade has been widely circulating in domestic and wild birds in several countries in Asia ( 5 ); in 2010, it was reported in Europe ( 6 ) and in 2014, in the Middle East ( 7 ). In 2015, clade 2.3.2.1c was detected in rooks, chickens, and dalmatian pelicans in Russia, Bulgaria, and Romania, respectively ( 8 ).…”

Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 Clade 2.3.2.1c virus in migratory birds, 2014–2015

“…The HA phylogeny revealed that all of the novel sequences belonged to Clade 2.3.2.1c ( Figure 1) and were closely related to sequences isolated from Sanmenxia, China, where HPAI H5N1 viruses caused the deaths of approximately one hundred migratory birds (mostly whooper swans) between late 2014 and early 2015 (Bi et al, 2015a). Notably, the Chinese strains also clustered together with those from Russia, West Asia, Europe and Africa that were isolated during May 2015, winter of 2014 (Naguib et al, 2015), and spring of 2015 (Monne et al, 2015), respectively (Figure 1). For the remaining seven genes, sequences from the strains mentioned above were clustered together and formed an independent sub-Clade (Figure 2 and Supplementary Figures S1-S6), indicating that they belonged to the same genotype.…”

“…The descendants of Gs/Gd caused much concern during 1997, when an H5N1 virus outbreak in the Hong Kong Special Administration Region (HKSAR) of China resulted in 18 human infections and 6 deaths (Webster et al, 2006). Reemergence of H5N1 was then reported during 2003 and continuing occurrences have been recorded ever since, including outbreaks in migratory birds (Liu et al, 2005;Wang et al, 2008;Hu et al, 2011;Sakoda et al, 2012;Naguib et al, 2015). As of 14 December 2015, transmission of Gs/Gd-lineage H5N1 viruses from avian hosts to humans has been reported in 16 countries worldwide, resulting in at least 844 laboratory-confirmed infections and 449 deaths (http://www.who.int/influenza/ human_ animal_interface/H5N1_cumulative_table_archives/en/).…”

“…During 2014-2015, a novel Clade 2.3.2.1c H5N1 virus caused several outbreaks amongst wild or domestic birds in Russia, China (Bi et al, 2015a), The United Arab Emirates (Western Asia) (Naguib et al, 2015), Bulgaria and Romania (Europe), and several African countries (FAO, 2015). In China, there have been at least three outbreaks in Sanmenxia Reservior, Inner Mongolia and Qinghai Lake, resulting in the deaths of thousands of wild birds.…”