Poultry producers worldwide should be on the alert for emerging strains of avian influenza virus that are either more transmissible or cause more severe disease than prior strains.
According to researchers led by The Pirbright Institute in the UK, infection with two strains of avian flu also could lead to the emergence of a new virus strain with the potential to jump from birds to humans.
One study, published in the Journal of Virology, was conducted after a low-pathogenic H7N9 strain of avian influenza virus emerged in 2013 through genetic reassortment between an H9N2 strain and other low-pathogenic strains.
The new H7N9 strain caused inapparent clinical disease in chickens, but zoonotic transmission caused severe and fatal disease in humans.
Pirbright researchers looked at a natural reassortment scenario between H7N9 and a G1-lineage H9N2 virus predominant in India and across the Middle East.
Shared genetic information.
According to Pirbright researchers, the study shows that avian influenza virus strains H9N2 and H7N9 can share genetic information to create an H9N9 strain with the potential to cause more severe disease in poultry and pose a threat to human health.
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