High doses of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus in chicken meat are required to infect ferrets.

High pathogenicity avian influenza viruses (HPAIV) have caused fatal infections in mammals through consumption of infected bird carcasses or meat, but scarce information exists on the dose of virus required and the diversity of HPAIV subtypes involved. Ferrets were exposed to different HPAIV (H5 and H7 subtypes) through consumption of infected chicken meat. The dose of virus needed to infect ferrets through consumption was much higher than via respiratory exposure and varied with the virus strain. In addition, H5N1 HPAIV produced higher titers in the meat of infected chickens and more easily infected ferrets than the H7N3 or H7N7 HPAIV.