Contemporary North American influenza H7 viruses possess human receptor specificity: Implications for virus transmissibility.

ABSTRACT: Avian H7 influenza viruses from both the Eurasian and North American lineage have caused outbreaks in poultry since 2002, with confirmed human infection occurring during outbreaks in The Netherlands, British Columbia, and the United Kingdom. The majority of H7 infections have resulted in self-limiting conjunctivitis, whereas probable human-to-human transmission has been rare. Here, we used glycan microarray technology to determine the receptor-binding preference of Eurasian and North American lineage H7 influenza viruses and their transmissibility in the ferret model. We found that highly pathogenic H7N7 viruses from The Netherlands in 2003 maintained the classic avian-binding preference for alpha2-3-linked sialic acids (SA) and are not readily transmissible in ferrets, as observed previou

SUBMITTER: Belser JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2396559 | biostudies-literature | 2008 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature