Examining the hemagglutinin subtype diversity among wild duck-origin influenza A viruses using ethanol-fixed cloacal swabs and a novel RT-PCR method.

ABSTRACT: This study presents an interconnected approach for circumventing two inherent limitations associated with studies defining the natural history of influenza A viruses in wild birds. The first limiting factor is the ability to maintain a cold chain from specimen collection to the laboratory when study sites are in more remote locations. The second limiting factor is the ability to identify all influenza A virus HA subtypes present in an original sample. We report a novel method for molecular subtyping of avian influenza A virus hemagglutinin genes using degenerate primers designed to amplify all known hemagglutinin subtypes. It was shown previously that templates larger than 200 bp were not consistently amplifiable from ethanol-fixed cloacal swabs. For this study, new primer sets were design

SUBMITTER: Wang R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2397557 | biostudies-literature | 2008 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature