Morphological features and pathogenicity of mutated canine influenza viruses from China and South Korea

Abstract

Influenza virus is a clinically and economically important virus that infects diverse species and phyla, including humans, pigs, horses and fowl (Wright, Webster, Knipe, & Howley, 2001). Dogs have been considered a neglected host for influenza viruses; however, epidemiological studies have revealed several outbreaks of inter-species transmission, such as the equine H3N8 (Crawford et al., 2005) and the avian H3N2 influenza virus that crossed the host barrier to dogs (Song et al., 2008). Sialic acid (SA) receptors in dogs have a distribution