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. 2020 Jul;26(7):1557-1561.
doi: 10.3201/eid2607.200165.

Sub-Saharan Africa and Eurasia Ancestry of Reassortant Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N8) Virus, Europe, December 2019

Edyta Świętoń, Alice Fusaro, Ismaila Shittu, Krzysztof Niemczuk, Bianca Zecchin, Tony Joannis, Francesco Bonfante, Krzysztof Śmietanka, Calogero Terregino

Sub-Saharan Africa and Eurasia Ancestry of Reassortant Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N8) Virus, Europe, December 2019

Edyta Świętoń et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2020 Jul.

Abstract

We report detection of a highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N8) clade 2.3.4.4b virus in Europe. This virus was generated by reassortment between H5N8 subtype virus from sub-Saharan Africa and low pathogenicity avian influenza viruses from Eurasia.

Keywords: Eurasia; Europe; ancestry; clade 2.3.4.4b; highly pathogenic influenza A(H5N8) virus; influenza; influenza virus; phylogeny; reassortant viruses; respiratory infections; sub-Saharan Africa; subtype; viruses.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Maximum-likelihood phylogenetic trees of avian influenza A (H5N8) viruses identified in Poland and Nigeria, 2019. A) Polymerase basic protein 2, C) polymerase basic protein 1, C) polymerase acidic protein, D) hemagglutinin, E) nucleoprotein, F) neuraminidase, G) matrix protein, H) nonstructural protein. H5N8 viruses detected in Poland and Nigeria in 2019 are indicated in bold, A/turkey/Poland/23/2019(H5N8) is indicated by a black star, and A/guinea_fowl/Nigeria/OG-GF11T_19VIR8424–7/2019(H5N8) is indicated by a black circle. Blue box indicates the South Africa 2017 H5N8 cluster, yellow boxes indicate the West-Central Africa 2016–2017 cluster, and purple box indicates Eurasian LPAI viruses. Numbers next to each node represent ultrafast bootstrap supports (>80). Scale bars indicate nucleotide substitutions per site. LPAI, low pathogenicity avian influenza virus.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Reassortment events between highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N8 viruses from South Africa (2017), HPAI H5N8 viruses from West-Central Africa (2017); and LPAI viruses from Eurasia giving rise to A/guinea_fowl/Nigeria/OG-GF11T_19VIR8424–7/2019(H5N8) (Nigeria 2019) and A/turkey/Poland/23/2019(H5N8) (Poland 2019). Each gene segment is represented by a bar of different length, from top to bottom: polymerase basic protein 2 (PB2), polymerase basic protein 1 (PB1), polymerase acidic protein (PA), hemagglutinin (HA), nucleoprotein (NP), neuraminidase (NA), matrix protein (M), and nonstructural protein (NS). Each color represents a different viral origin: blue, H5N8 South Africa (2017); yellow, H5N8 West-Central Africa (2017); purple, Eurasian LPAI viruses. LPAI, low pathogenicity avian influenza virus.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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