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Genetic characterization of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 viruses isolated from naturally infected pigeons in Egypt

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Abstract

Avian influenza viruses impose serious public health burdens with significant mortality and morbidity not only in poultry but also in humans. While poultry susceptibility to avian influenza virus infection is well characterized, pigeons have been thought to have low susceptibility to these viruses. However, recent studies reported natural pigeon infections with highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 viruses. In Egypt, which is one of the H5N1 endemic areas for birds, pigeons are raised in towers built on farms in backyards and on house roofs, providing a potential risk for virus transmission from pigeons to humans. In this study, we performed genetic analysis of two H5N1 virus strains that were isolated from naturally infected pigeons in Egypt. Genetic and phylogenetic analyses showed that these viruses originated from Egyptian H5N1 viruses that were circulating in chickens or ducks. Several unique mutations, not reported before in any Egyptian isolates, were detected in the internal genes (i.e., polymerase residues PB1-V3D, PB1-K363R, PA-A369V, and PA-V602I; nucleoprotein residue NP-R38K; and nonstructural protein residues NS1-D120N and NS2-F55C). Our findings suggested that pigeons are naturally infected with H5N1 virus and can be a potential reservoir for transmission to humans, and showed the importance of genetic analysis of H5N1 internal genes.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (KAKENHI Grant Numbers 15K08497, 15H05287, and 15H05295) and partially by the Science and Technology Development Fund in Egypt (Egypt–Japan Collaboration; Grant Number 3282).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Infectious Diseases, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, 465 Kawaramachi-hirokoji Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto, 602-8566, Japan

    Emad Mohamed Elgendy, Yohei Watanabe, Tomo Daidoji, Yasuha Arai, Madiha Salah Ibrahim & Takaaki Nakaya

  2. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Damanhur University, Damanhur, Egypt

    Emad Mohamed Elgendy & Madiha Salah Ibrahim

  3. Department of Viral Infections, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, 3-1 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan

    Yohei Watanabe, Yasuha Arai & Kazuyoshi Ikuta

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  1. Emad Mohamed Elgendy
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  2. Yohei Watanabe
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  3. Tomo Daidoji
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  4. Yasuha Arai
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  5. Kazuyoshi Ikuta
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  6. Madiha Salah Ibrahim
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  7. Takaaki Nakaya
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yohei Watanabe or Takaaki Nakaya.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals by any of the authors.

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Edited by William Dundon.

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Elgendy, E.M., Watanabe, Y., Daidoji, T. et al. Genetic characterization of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 viruses isolated from naturally infected pigeons in Egypt. Virus Genes 52, 867–871 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11262-016-1369-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11262-016-1369-z

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