Infectious dose-dependent accumulation of live highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus in chicken skeletal muscle—implications for public health
Loading...
Date
2017-04
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Blackwell Verlag GmbH
Abstract
Highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIV) of H5N1 subtype are a major global
threat to poultry and public health. Export of poultry products, such as chicken and
duck meat, is a known source for the cross-boundary
spread of HPAI H5N1 viruses.
Humans get infected with HPAI H5N1 viruses either by close contact with infected
poultry or through consumption of fresh/undercooked poultry meat. Skeletal muscle
is the largest soft tissue in chicken that has been shown to contain virus during systemic
HPAIV infection and supports productive virus infection. However, the time
between infection of a chicken with H5N1 virus and presence of virus in muscle tissue
is not yet known. Further, it is also not clear whether chicken infected with low doses
of H5N1 virus that cause non-fatal
subclinical infections continue to accumulate virus
in skeletal muscle. We investigated the amount and duration of virus detection in skeletal
muscle of chicken experimentally infected with different doses (102, 103 and 104
EID50) of a HPAI H5N1 virus. Influenza viral antigen could be detected as early as 6 hr
after infection and live virus was recovered from 48 hr after infection. Notably, chicken
infected with lower levels of HPAI H5N1 virus (i.e., 102 EID50) did not die acutely, but
continued to accumulate high levels of H5N1 virus in skeletal muscle until 6 days post-infection.
Our data suggest that there is a potential risk of human exposure to H5N1
virus through meat from clinically healthy chicken infected with a low dose of virus.
Our results highlight the need to implement rigorous monitoring systems to screen
poultry meat from H5N1 endemic countries to limit the global spread of H5N1
viruses.
Description
TNV_ZPH_2017_1-5
Keywords
Veterinary Science