Genome analysis linking recent European and African influenza (H5N1) viruses.
To better understand the ecology and epidemiology of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus in its transcontinental spread, we sequenced and analyzed the complete genomes of 36 recent influenza A (H5N1) viruses collected from birds in Europe, northern Africa, and southeastern Asia. These sequences, among the first complete genomes of influenza (H5N1) viruses outside Asia, clearly depict the lineages now infecting wild and domestic birds in Europe and Africa and show the relationships among these isolates and other strains affecting both birds and humans. The isolates fall into 3 distinct lineages, 1 of which contains all known non-Asian isolates. This new Euro-African lineage, which was the cause of several recent (2006) fatal human infections in Egypt and Iraq, has been introduced at least 3 times into the European-African region and has split into 3 distinct, independently evolving sublineages. One isolate provides evidence that 2 of these sublineages have recently reassorted.
Salzberg
Steven L
SL
University of Maryland Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA. salzberg@umd.edu
Kingsford
Carl
C
Cattoli
Giovanni
G
Spiro
David J
DJ
Janies
Daniel A
DA
Aly
Mona Mehrez
MM
Brown
Ian H
IH
Couacy-Hymann
Emmanuel
E
De Mia
Gian Mario
GM
Dung
Do Huu
do H
Guercio
Annalisa
A
Joannis
Tony
T
Maken Ali
Ali Safar
AS
Osmani
Azizullah
A
Padalino
Iolanda
I
Saad
Magdi D
MD
Savić
Vladimir
V
Sengamalay
Naomi A
NA
Yingst
Samuel
S
Zaborsky
Jennifer
J
Zorman-Rojs
Olga
O
Ghedin
Elodie
E
Capua
Ilaria
I
D000352:Africa, Northern / Q000453:epidemiology; D000818:Animals; D001717:Birds / Q000821:virology*; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005814:Genes, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D053124:Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D005585:Influenza in Birds / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D008877:Middle East / Q000453:epidemiology; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny