In 2009, a novel H1N1 influenza (pH1N1) virus caused the first influenza pandemic in 40 y. The virus was identified as a triple reassortant between avian, swine, and human influenza viruses, highlighting the importance of reassortment in the generation of viruses with pandemic potential. Previously, we showed that a reassortant virus composed of wild-type avian H9N2 surface genes in a seasonal ...

Outbreaks of pandemic H1N1 2009 (pH1N1) in turkeys have been reported in several countries. Co-infection of pH1N1 and avian H9N2 influenza viruses in turkeys provide the opportunity for their reassortment, and novel reassortant viruses might further be transmitted to other avian species. However, virulence and transmission of those reassortant viruses in poultry remain unclear. In the present s...

In order to determine how efficiently the polymerase proteins derived from human and avian influenza A viruses can interact with each other in the context of a mammalian cell, a genetic system that allows the in vivo reconstitution of active ribonucleoproteins was used. The ability to achieve replication of a viral-like reporter RNA in COS-1 cells was examined with heterospecific mixtures of th...

Cross-protection of mice immunized with inactivated preparations of human and avian influenza A (H2) viruses was determined after lethal infection with mouse-adapted (MA) variants of human A/Jap x Bell/57 (H2N1) and avian A/NJers/78 (H2N3) viruses. The MA variants differed from the original strains by acquired virulence for mice and changes in the HA antigenicity. These studies indicated that m...

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...

A new pandemic influenza in the human world may originate from avian reservoirs. Influenza is one of the most widely spread zoonotic infectious diseases. All avian influenza viruses are type A, and they have often caused pandemics throughout human history. The highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza A viruses have now been spreading to many countries in Asia, Europe and Africa. They have infected an i...

BACKGROUND Swine have receptors for both human and avian influenza viruses and are a natural host for influenza A viruses. The 2009 influenza A(H1N1) pandemic (H1N1pdm) virus that was derived from avian, human and swine influenza viruses has infected pigs in various countries. OBJECTIVES To investigate the relationship between the H1N1pdm viruses isolated from piggery outbreaks in Australia a...

Amongst all the internal gene segments (PB2. PB1, PA, NP, M and NS), the avian PB1 segment is the only one which was reassorted into the human H2N2 and H3N2 pandemic strains. This suggests that the reassortment of polymerase subunit genes between mammalian and avian influenza viruses might play roles for interspecies transmission. To test this hypothesis, we tested the compatibility between PB2...

In the last few years, several reassortant subtypes of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAI H5Nx) have emerged in East Asia. These new viruses, mostly of subtype H5N1, H5N2, H5N6, and H5N8 belonging to clade 2.3.4.4, have been found in several Asian countries and have caused outbreaks in poultry in China, South Korea, and Vietnam. HPAI H5Nx also have spread over considerable distance...

Avian influenza A viruses exhibit a strong preference for using alpha2,3-linked sialic acid as a receptor. Until recently, the presumed lack of this receptor in human airways was believed to constitute an efficient barrier to avian influenza A virus infection of humans. Recent zoonotic outbreaks of avian influenza A virus have triggered researchers to analyse tissue distribution of sialic acid ...