BACKGROUND In Bangladesh, nomadic duck flocks are groups of domestic ducks reared for egg production that are moved to access feeding sites beyond their owners' village boundaries and are housed overnight in portable enclosures in scavenging areas. The objectives of this study were to measure the prevalence of influenza A virus RNA and H5-specific antibodies in nomadic ducks and to characterize...

A multiplex real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RRT-PCR) assay for the simultaneous detection of the H5 and H7 avian influenza hemagglutinin (HA) subtypes was developed with hydrolysis type probes labeled with the FAM (H5 probe) and ROX (H7 probe) reporter dyes. The sensitivity of the H5-H7 subtyping assay was determined, using in vitro transcribed RNA templates, to have ...

Newly emerged highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A H5 viruses have caused outbreaks among birds in the United States. These viruses differ genetically from HPAI H5 viruses that previously caused human illness, most notably in Asia and Africa. To assess the risk for animal-to-human HPAI H5 virus transmission in the United States, we determined the number of persons with self-reported expos...

In Java, Indonesia, during March 2007-March 2008, 96 farms with scavenging ducks that were not vaccinated against highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) were monitored bimonthly. Bird-level (prevalence among individual birds) H5 seroprevalence was 2.6% for ducks and 0.5% for chickens in contact with ducks. At least 1 seropositive bird was detected during 19.5% and 2.0% of duck- and chicken-fl...

H5N1 avian influenza is a significant global concern with the potential to become the next pandemic threat. Recombinant subunit vaccines are an attractive alternative for pandemic vaccines compared to traditional vaccine technologies. In particular, polyanhydride nanoparticles encapsulating subunit proteins have been shown to enhance humoral and cell-mediated immunity and provide protection upo...

The 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)1B/1D receptor subtypes are involved in the regulation of 5-HT release and have gained particular interest because of their apparent role in migraine. Although selective antagonists for both receptor subtypes recently have been developed, the receptor domains involved in the pharmacological specificity of these antagonists are defined poorly. This was investigated ...

Avian influenza virus (AIV) can infect a variety of avian species and mammals, leading to severe economic losses in poultry industry and posing a substantial threat to public health. Currently, traditional virus isolation and identification is inadequate for the early diagnosis because of its labor-intensive and time-consuming features. Real-time RT-PCR (RRT-PCR) is an ideal method for the dete...

In order to develop a systemically administered safe and effective nonviral gene delivery system against avian influenza virus (AIV) that induced cytokine expression, the hemagglutinin (H5) gene of AIV, A/Ck/Malaysia/5858/04 (H5N1) and green fluorescent protein were cloned into a coexpression vector pIRES (pIREGFP-H5) and formulated using green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with pol...

Natural and synthetic steroid hormones excreted into the environment are potentially threatening the population dynamics of all kinds of animals and public health. We have previously isolated a steroid degrading bacterial strain (H5) from the Baltic Sea, at Kiel, Germany. 16S-rRNA analysis showed that bacterial strain H5 belongs to the genus Vibrio, family Vibrionaceae and class Gamma-Proteobac...

This study was aimed to evaluate the immunogenicity of recombinant plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), pBud-H5-green fluorescent protein (GFP)-interferon-regulatory factor (IRF)3 following delivery using polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer and transactivator of transcription (TAT)-conjugated PAMAM dendrimer as well as the effect of IRF3 as the genetic adjuvant. BALB/c mice were vaccinated transde...