Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jan;28(3):2300001.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2023.28.3.2300001.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) virus infection in farmed minks, Spain, October 2022

Montserrat Agüero  1 , Isabella Monne  2 , Azucena Sánchez  1 , Bianca Zecchin  2 , Alice Fusaro  2 , María José Ruano  1 , Manuel Del Valle Arrojo  3 , Ricardo Fernández-Antonio  4 , Antonio Manuel Souto  5 , Pedro Tordable  5 , Julio Cañás  5 , Francesco Bonfante  2 , Edoardo Giussani  2 , Calogero Terregino  2 , Jesús Javier Orejas  6
Affiliations

Highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) virus infection in farmed minks, Spain, October 2022

Montserrat Agüero et al. Euro Surveill. 2023 Jan.

Abstract

In October 2022, an outbreak in Europe of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) in intensively farmed minks occurred in northwest Spain. A single mink farm hosting more than 50,000 minks was involved. The identified viruses belong to clade 2.3.4.4b, which is responsible of the ongoing epizootic in Europe. An uncommon mutation (T271A) in the PB2 gene with potential public health implications was found. Our investigations indicate onward mink transmission of the virus may have occurred in the affected farm.

Keywords: H5N1; HPAI; PB2; Spain; influenza A; mammal; mink; mutations.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree of the haemagglutinin gene segment of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 viruses from minks (n = 4) and avian species (n = 38) in Spain as well as H5 sequences collected from 23 European countries (n = 292)a, October 2021–October 2022
Figure 2
Figure 2
Genetic network of complete genome sequences of viruses belonging to the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus A/gull/France/22P015977/2022-like genotype, from four European countries, May–October 2022 (n = 22)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Corman VM, Landt O, Kaiser M, Molenkamp R, Meijer A, Chu DK, et al. Detection of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by real-time RT-PCR. Euro Surveill. 2020;25(3):2000045. 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.3.2000045 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Spackman E, Senne DA, Myers TJ, Bulaga LL, Garber LP, Perdue ML, et al. Development of a real-time reverse transcriptase PCR assay for type A influenza virus and the avian H5 and H7 hemagglutinin subtypes. J Clin Microbiol. 2002;40(9):3256-60. 10.1128/JCM.40.9.3256-3260.2002 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hoffmann B, Hoffmann D, Henritzi D, Beer M, Harder TC. Riems influenza a typing array (RITA): An RT-qPCR-based low density array for subtyping avian and mammalian influenza a viruses. Sci Rep. 2016;6(1):27211. 10.1038/srep27211 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Consulta de notificación de enfermedades de los animales de declaración obligatoria. [Consultation of notification of animal diseases of obligatory declaration.] Madrid: Spanish Government. [Accessed: 16 Jan 2023]. Spanish. Available from: https://servicio.mapa.gob.es/rasve/Publico/Publico/BuscadorFocos.aspx
    1. European Commission. Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/788 of 12 May 2021 laying down rules for the monitoring and reporting of infections with SARS-CoV-2 in certain animal species. Official Journal of the European Union. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. 15.5.2021: L173. Available from: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32021D0788...

LinkOut - more resources