A viral race for primacy: co-infection of a natural pair of low and highly pathogenic H7N7 avian influenza viruses in chickens and embryonated chicken eggs.

ABSTRACT: Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) infection in poultry caused devastating mortality and economic losses. HPAIV of subtypes H5 and H7 emerge from precursor viruses of low pathogenicity (LP) by spontaneous mutation associated with a shift in the susceptibility of the endoproteolytic cleavage site of the viral hemagglutinin protein from trypsin- to furin-like proteases. A recently described natural pair of LP/HP H7N7 viruses derived from two spatio-temporally linked outbreaks in layer chickens was used to study how a minority of mutated HP virions after de novo generation in a single host might gain primacy. Co-infection experiments in embryonated eggs and in chickens were conducted to investigate amplification, spread and transmissionof HPAIV within a poultry population that ex

SUBMITTER: Graaf A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6279742 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature