Prevailing agro-ecological conditions and intermingling of human and animals in intensive farms in urban and peri-urban areas in Africa favour cross species transmission of pathogens at the human-animal interface. However, molecular epidemiology studies of zoonotic swine influenza viruses in this region are limited. In this study, isolates of pandemic influenza virus (H1N1pdm09) obtained from pigs in Nigeria were fully sequenced. BLAST of swine influenza virus genes from Nigeria was carried out in GenBank and gene alignment was done using MEGA version 7. Maximum likelihood method (PhyML program) was used to determine gene evolutionary relationships with other viruses and phylogenetic trees were constructed to infer genomic clusters and relationship. Swine influenza viruses isolated and sequenced in this study were monophyletic and 99% congenetic with human isolates from Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana and USA suggesting reverse zoonotic transmission from humans to pigs in intensive husbandry. A Q240R and S31N substitution among others were detected in the haemagglutinin and matrix genes, respectively, indicating potentials for mutations during interspecies co-mingling and transmission. The A/H1N1pdm09 viruses circulating in pigs that are also exposed to avian influenza in the same epidemiological zones could engender emergence of novel viruses with zoonotic or pandemic potential requiring enhanced surveillance and monitoring.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20008686.2019.1696632 | DOI Listing |
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
January 2025
School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G61 1QH, UK.
Birds have evolved seasonal adaptations in multiple aspects of the innate and adaptive immune systems. Seasonal immunological adaptations are crucial for survival in harsh environmental conditions and in response to increased prevalence of acute and chronic diseases. Similar to other vertebrates, birds exhibit remarkable plasticity in cytokine production, chemotaxis, phagocytosis and inflammation across the year.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Adv
January 2025
State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, National Key Laboratory of Intelligent Tracking and Forecasting for Infectious Diseases, Beijing Research Center for Respiratory Infectious Diseases, School of National Safety and Emergency Management, Center for Global Change and Public Health, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
The effectiveness of poultry vaccination in preventing the transmission of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (AIVs) has been debated, and its impact on wild birds remains uncertain. Here, we reconstruct the movements of H5 subtype AIV lineages among vaccinated poultry, unvaccinated poultry, and wild birds, worldwide, from 1996 to 2023. We find that there is a time lag in viral transmission among different host populations and that movements from wild birds to unvaccinated poultry were more frequent than those from wild birds to vaccinated poultry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS Pathog
January 2025
Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America.
One approach for developing a more universal influenza vaccine is to elicit strong immune responses against canonically immunosubdominant epitopes in the surface exposed viral glycoproteins. While standard vaccines typically induce responses directed primarily against mutable epitopes in the hemagglutinin (HA) head domain, there are generally limited or variable responses directed against epitopes in the relatively more conserved HA stalk domain and neuraminidase (NA) proteins. Here we describe a vaccine approach that utilizes a combination of wildtype (WT) influenza virus particles along with virus particles engineered to display a trimerized HA stalk in place of the full-length HA protein to elicit both responses simultaneously.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Med Microbiol
January 2025
Departamento de Bioqumica e Imunologia, Instituto de Cincias Biolgicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.
Apolipoprotein E (ApoE), especially the ApoE4 isotype, is suggested to influence the severity of respiratory viral infections; however, this association is still unclear. The presence of allele ε4 impacts the development of flu-like syndromes. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the Apo E4 isoform on the severity and duration of flu-like syndromes, including the coronavirus disease COVID-19.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnnual epidemics of influenza result in 3-5 million cases of severe illness and more than 600 000 deaths. Severe forms of influenza are usually characterized by vascular endothelial cells damage. Thus, influenza A viruses, including subtypes A(H1N1)pdm09, A(H3N2), as well as highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses, can infect the vascular endothelium, leading to activation and subsequent dysfunction of these cells.
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