INTRODUCTION Avian influenza viruses circulate in bird populations, and it is important to maintain and uphold our knowledge of the viral strains that are currently of interest in this context. Here, we describe the use of hemagglutinin-pseudotype retroviruses based on highly pathogenic influenza viruses for the screening of avian sera for influenza A antibodies. Our aim was also to determine w...

Human influenza viruses manage to cause epidemics almost every year. The circulating viruses change their surface glycoproteins by accumulating mutations (antigenic drift) which results in variant viruses of the same subtype that are able to evade the immune pressure in the population. Every now and then, a completely new subtype of influenza A virus is introduced in the human population, which...

Avian influenza viruses are capable of crossing the species barrier and infecting humans. Although evidence of human-to-human transmission of avian influenza viruses to date is limited, evolution of variants toward more-efficient human-to-human transmission could result in a new influenza virus pandemic. In both the avian influenza A(H5N1) and the recently emerging avian influenza A(H7N9) virus...

Avian influenza viruses are currently one of the main threats to human health in the world. Although there are some screening reports of antibodies against these viruses in humans from Western countries, most of these types of studies are conducted in poultry and market workers of Asian populations. The presence of antibodies against avian influenza viruses was evaluated in an elderly European ...

BACKGROUND An explosive fatal epizootic in poultry, prairie chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese, occurred over much of the populated United States between 15 November and 15 December 1872. To our knowledge the scientific literature contains no mention of the nationwide 1872 poultry outbreak. OBJECTIVE To understand avian influenza in a historical context. RESULTS The epizootic progressed in ...

Aim: Biosecurity measures are rarely implemented in traditional farming systems especially in the villages. Given the importance of the village chickens as a source of income for rural families and its public health concern due to the frequent contact that exist between these birds and humans a study was conducted to assess the presence of antibodies to the H5 avian influenza virus subtype in v...

Many viruses, including human influenza A virus, have developed strategies for counteracting the host type I interferon (IFN) response. We have explored whether avian influenza viruses were less capable of combating the type I IFN response in mammalian cells, as this might be a determinant of host range restriction. A panel of avian influenza viruses isolated between 1927 and 1997 was assembled...

Avian influenza virus (H5N1) can be transmitted to humans, resulting in a severe or fatal disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate the immune cross-reactivity between human and avian influenza (H5N1) strains in healthy donors vaccinated for seasonal influenza A (H1N1)/(H3N2). A small frequency of CD4 T cells specific for subtype H5N1 was detected in several persons at baseline, and season...

We report the isolation and characterization of a highly pathogenic avian influenza A/H5N1 virus from Crested Hawk-Eagles smuggled into Europe by air travel. A screening performed in human and avian contacts indicated no dissemination occurred. Illegal movements of birds are a major threat for the introduction of highly pathogenic avian influenza.