Serological and Virological Surveillance of Avian Influenza A Virus H9N2 Subtype in Humans and Poultry in Shanghai, China, Between 2008 and 2010

Abstract

We report the serological evidence of low-pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) H9N2 infection in an occupational poultry-exposed population and a general population. A serological survey of an occupational poultry-exposed population and a general population was conducted using a haemagglutinin-inhibiting (HI) assay in Shanghai, China, from January 2008 to December 2010. Evidence of higher anti-H9 antibodies was found in serum samples collected from poultry workers. During this period, 239 H9N2 avian influenza viruses (AIVs) were isolated from 9297 tracheal and cloacal paired specimens collected from the poultry in live poultry markets. In addition, a total of 733 influenza viruses were isolated from 1569 nasal and throat swabs collected from patients with influenza-like symptoms in a sentinel hospital, which include H3N2, H1N1, pandemic H1N1 and B, but no H9N2 virus was detected. These findings highlight the need for long-term surveillance of avian influenza viruses in occupational poultry-exposed workers.

Avian influenza A in poultry stalls of Lahore District, Pakistan in 2009–2010

“…The overall prevalence of AIV subtype H9 was 10.0% (95% CI: 5.61%-14.39%), which fell between the 2.5% prevalence estimates reported from China (6) and that of 16.5% from Bangladesh (7) The highest prevalence was seen in Ravi town (17.1%; 95% CI: 4.5%-29.8%) followed by Data Gunj Bakhsh town (14.3%; 95% CI: 2.5%-26.0%) ( Table Supplementary Appendix …”

Lactobacillus plantarum vaccine vector expressing hemagglutinin provides protection against H9N2 challenge infection

“…With a genetically diverse population, LPAI H9N2 viruses have infected both wild and domestic species of birds and mammals (Blair et al, 2013;Peng et al, 2013;Shanmuganatham et al, 2013;Wang et al, 2014;Zhou et al, 2014;Zhu et al, 2013) and have also contributed their six internal gene segments to the H7N9 viruses (Bi et al, 2014;Gao et al, 2013). Thus, there is a great deal of interest in developing vaccines to prevent the transmission and control the ubiquity of H9N2.…”

Prevailing PA Mutation K356R in Avian Influenza H9N2 Virus Increases Mammalian Replication and Pathogenicity

“…During the same period, a newly emergent avian H10N8 virus, also with six H9N2-like internal genes, was reported to cause fatal human infections in China (4). In the meantime, H9N2 viruses continued to cause human infections in China and other countries based on etiological and serological evidence (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12). We recently found that avian H9N2 viruses have undergone significant genetic evolution, especially in their internal genes, to form a predominant genotype (G57), which in turn provided the internal genes to multiple new subtypes, including H7N9 and H10N8 viruses (13).…”