Respiratory transmission of an avian H3N8 influenza virus isolated from a harbour seal

Erik A. Karlsson, Hon S. Ip, Jeffrey S. Hall, Sun Woo Yoon, Jordan Johnson, Melinda A. Beck, Richard J. Webby and Stacey Schultz-Cherry ()
Additional contact information
Erik A. Karlsson: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Hon S. Ip: United States Geological Survey, National Wildlife Health Center
Jeffrey S. Hall: United States Geological Survey, National Wildlife Health Center
Sun Woo Yoon: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Jordan Johnson: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Melinda A. Beck: Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Richard J. Webby: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Stacey Schultz-Cherry: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Nature Communications, 2014, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract The ongoing human H7N9 influenza infections highlight the threat of emerging avian influenza viruses. In 2011, an avian H3N8 influenza virus isolated from moribund New England harbour seals was shown to have naturally acquired mutations known to increase the transmissibility of highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza viruses. To elucidate the potential human health threat, here we evaluate a panel of avian H3N8 viruses and find that the harbour seal virus displays increased affinity for mammalian receptors, transmits via respiratory droplets in ferrets and replicates in human lung cells. Analysis of a panel of human sera for H3N8 neutralizing antibodies suggests that there is no population-wide immunity to these viruses. The prevalence of H3N8 viruses in birds and multiple mammalian species including recent isolations from pigs and evidence that it was a past human pandemic virus make the need for surveillance and risk analysis of these viruses of public health importance.

Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms5791 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms5791

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5791

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().