National Institute of Animal Health (NIAH)

Topics in Animal Health Research 2009

13. Association of the extreme virulence of the H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses in chickens with their rapid and efficient replication in macrophages and vascular endothelial cells

Japanese

 The H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses circulating mainly in Asia since 1996 are known to be extremely virulent to chickens, but the virological and pathological characteristics have not been fully understood. A/chicken/Yamaguchi/7/2004, an H5N1 reference strain, caused peracute death in chickens (34 h) with no gross lesions and no fever whereas A/duck/Yokohama/aq10/2003, another H5N1 strain, induced a long period to death (over 84 h) with severe gross lesions and high fever. The pathological differences indicate that the increased pathogenicity of the recent Asian H5N1 viruses in chickens may be associated with the extremely rapid and efficient replication of the viruses in macrophages and vascular endothelial cells, which resulted in disruption of the thermoregulation system and innate immune responses.
(Research Team for Zoonotic Diseases, TEL +81-29-838-7708)

Reference:

Suzuki, K. et al. (2009) J. Virology. 83:7475-7486.

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