H6N1 influenza A is an avian virus but in 2013 infected a human in Taiwan. We studied the phylogeography of avian origin H6N1 viruses in the Influenza Research Database and the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data EpiFlu Database in order to characterize their recent evolutionary spread. Our results suggest that the H6N1 virus that infected a human in Taiwan is derived from a diver...

Position-specific entropy profiles created from scanning 306 human and 95 avian influenza A viral genomes showed that 228 of 4591 amino acid residues yielded significant differences between these 2 viruses. We subsequently used 15,785 protein sequences from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) to assess the robustness of these signatures and obtained 52 "species-associated" ...

In Egypt, avian influenza A subtype H5N1 and H9N2 viruses are enzootic in poultry. The control plan devised by veterinary authorities in Egypt to prevent infections in poultry focused mainly on vaccination and ultimately failed. Recently, widespread H5N1 infections in poultry and a substantial increase in the number of human cases of H5N1 infection were observed. We summarize surveillance data ...

In 1997–1998, H3N2 influenza viruses of different genotypes emerged among North American pigs. Triple reassortant H3N2 viruses containing human, classical swine and avian virus genes spread widely within the swine population and gave rise subsequently to reassortant H1N2 and H1N1 viruses. Together with wholly avian viruses recovered from North American pigs since 1999, these viruses emphasize t...

During December 15, 2014-January 16, 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture received 14 reports of birds infected with Asian-origin, highly pathogenic avian influenza A (HPAI) (H5N2), (H5N8), and (H5N1) viruses. These reports represent the first reported infections with these viruses in U.S. wild or domestic birds. Although these viruses are not known to have caused disease in humans, their a...

Coinfection of wild birds by influenza A viruses is thought to be an important mechanism for the diversification of viral phenotypes by generation of reassortants. However, it is not known whether coinfection is a random event or follows discernible patterns with biological significance. In the present study, conducted with viruses collected throughout 15 years from a wild-duck population in Al...

Sixteen avian influenza (AI) H9N2 viruses were isolated from disease outbreaks in different parts of Iranduring (1998–2001). These AI isolates were used for pathogenicity, haemagglutinin (HA) gene variation andphylogenetic analysis. Results in both pathogenicity tests and HA gene cleavage site sequence detectionrepresented a non-highly pathogenic feature for all Iranian AI isolates studied. The...

Influenza-A viruses cause natural infections of humans, some other mammals and birds. Few of the 15 haemagglutinin and 9 neuraminidase subtype combinations have been isolated from mammals, but all subtypes have been isolated from birds. There are enormous pools of influenza-A viruses in wild birds, especially migratory waterfowl. In the 20th century there were 4 pandemics of influenza due to th...

New emerging avian influenza A viruses pose a continued threat, not only to avian species but also to the humans. Avian influenza viruses increasingly crossing species barriers possibly with increased zoonotic potential. Due to rapid spread of influenza viruses, zoo animals and birds are at great risk. There are many species in zoos that are part of worldwide programme to save endangered specie...

BACKGROUND On March 30, 2013, a novel avian influenza A H7N9 virus that infects human beings was identified. This virus had been detected in six provinces and municipal cities in China as of April 18, 2013. We correlated genomic sequences from avian influenza viruses with ecological information and did phylogenetic and coalescent analyses to extrapolate the potential origins of the virus and po...