Munir Muhammad, Zohari Siamak, Abbas Muhammad, Shabbir Muhammad Zubair, Zahid Muhammad Nauman, Latif Muhammad Saqib, Iqbal Muhammad, Qureshi Zafar Ul Ahsan, Berg Mikael
Innate Immune Responses, Avian Viral Diseases Programme, Compton Laboratory, The Pirbright Institute, Compton, Berkshire RG20 7NN UK.
The Department of Biomedical Sciences and Veterinary Public Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Ulls väg 2B, 751 89 Uppsala, Sweden.
Indian J Virol. 2013 Dec;24(3):342-8. doi: 10.1007/s13337-013-0144-1. Epub 2013 Jul 24.
Several outbreaks of avian influenza (AI) caused by H9N2 subtype, have been reported in the poultry industry during 1990 around the globe. Currently, H9N2 are endemic in the large area of Middle and Far East, including Pakistan. Since H9N2 AI viruses are sporadically reported from humans, extensive incidence of H9N2 in poultry imposes a great risk for human health. In this context, continuous monitoring of the poultry and determining the genetic nature of these viruses are fundamental to predict any future threat. Thus gene sequences of one isolate of H9N2, isolated from commercial poultry flocks, were analyzed. The results of this investigation, based on hemagglutinin (HA), neuraminidase (NA) and non-structural genes, showed that Pakistani H9N2 isolates are closely related to each other and to other H9N2 isolates from the Middle East. However, several unusual substitutions with unknown functional consequences were observed in HA and NA proteins and thus warrant further investigations for their possible role in viral biology. In conclusion, these findings provide information regarding the genetic nature of H9N2 avian influenza viruses in Pakistani poultry and necessitate the sequencing of more H9N2 viruses from both naturally infected and vaccinated flocks.
1990年前后，全球家禽业报告了几起因H9N2亚型引起的禽流感（AI）疫情。目前，H9N2在包括巴基斯坦在内的中东和远东大片地区呈地方流行状态。由于人类偶尔会报告感染H9N2禽流感病毒，家禽中H9N2的广泛流行对人类健康构成了巨大风险。在此背景下，持续监测家禽并确定这些病毒的基因特性对于预测未来的任何威胁至关重要。因此，对从商业家禽群中分离出的一株H9N2病毒的基因序列进行了分析。基于血凝素（HA）、神经氨酸酶（NA）和非结构基因的调查结果表明，巴基斯坦的H9N2分离株彼此之间以及与中东的其他H9N2分离株密切相关。然而，在HA和NA蛋白中观察到了一些功能后果未知的异常替代，因此有必要进一步研究它们在病毒生物学中的可能作用。总之，这些发现提供了有关巴基斯坦家禽中H9N2禽流感病毒基因特性的信息，并且需要对来自自然感染和接种疫苗鸡群的更多H9N2病毒进行测序。
