Emergence and Adaptation of a Novel Highly Pathogenic H7N9 Influenza Virus in Birds and Humans from a 2013 Human-Infecting Low-Pathogenic Ancestor.

ABSTRACT: Since its emergence in 2013, the H7N9 low-pathogenic avian influenza virus (LPAIV) has been circulating in domestic poultry in China, causing five waves of human infections. A novel H7N9 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) variant possessing multiple basic amino acids at the cleavage site of the hemagglutinin (HA) protein was first reported in two cases of human infection in January 2017. More seriously, those novel H7N9 HPAIV variants have been transmitted and caused outbreaks on poultry farms in eight provinces in China. Herein, we demonstrate the presence of three different amino acid motifs at the cleavage sites of these HPAIV variants which were isolated from chickens and humans and likely evolved from the preexisting LPAIVs. Animal experiments showed that these novel H7N9

SUBMITTER: Qi W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5752946 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature