Evaluation of Immune Responses and Histopathological Effects against Gamma Irradiated Avian Influenza (Sub type H9N2) Vaccine on Broiler Chicken

Abstract Vaccination is a good strategy for the prevention of avian influenza virus. In this research Gamma Irradiated Avian Influenza (Sub type H9N2) Vaccine (GAIV) was prepared by 30 kGy irradiation and used for vaccination of broiler chickens. The purpose was a comparison of immune responses in the two routes of administration for the GAIV vaccine; intranasal and subcutaneously, use of Montanide ISA70 and Trehalose accompanied with irradiated vaccine and compare with formalin vaccine. The Influenza Virus A/Chicken/IRN/Ghazvin/2001/H9N2 was irradiated and used for vaccine formulation, and formalin inactivated AIV was used as conventional vaccine. Chickens were vaccinated by GAIV with and without Trehalose, GAIV and formalin vaccines with ISA70, two routes of administration were intranasal and subcutaneously. All the vaccinated chickens showed a significant increase in antibody titration. The most significant increase of antibody titration was in irradiated vaccine plus Trehalose groups intranasal and subcutaneously. After the first and second intranasal vaccination, the amount of IFN-gamma increased in the irradiated vaccine plus Trehalose group compared to other groups. However, most of the vaccinated groups did not show any significant increase of IFN-α concentration. Histopathological examination revealed lymphocyte infiltration (++), foci dispersed of hemorrhage and edema in intranasal vaccination groups and in addition to these, thickening of alveolar septa was observed in the injection groups. GAIV vaccine can be a good candidate for vaccine preparation, and Trehalose as a stabilizer protects viral antigenic proteins, also makes more absorbance of antigen by the inhalation route. In vaccinated chickens the ulcers in injected vaccines were lower than intranasal vaccines.

Inhibition of the replication of H9N2 influenza virus in vivo by short-term repeated oral administration of chicken interferon α / 生物工程学报

To evaluate the optimal administration frequency for interferon-α (IFN-α) and the effect of its combined use with inactive virus on chicken flocks, the prokaryotic expression plasmid pET-22b-ChIFN-α was constructed and transferred into Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) host bacteria to induce the expression of chicken IFN-α and to harvest recombinant proteins inclusion bodies. The expression of recombinant chicken IFN-α was confirmed by SDS-PAGE, and the results demonstrated that the chicken IFN-α (20 kDa) was highly expressed using the prokaryotic expression vector with a concentration of 0.2 mg/mL in the medium. Chicken IFN-α was diluted to 2.5×10⁴ U/fowls and administered to immunized specific-pathogen-free chickens orally in combination with inactivated H9N2 subtype influenza virus. Chicken that received chicken IFN-α were safe after three repeated immunizations (96 h). In addition, chicken IFN-α could induce higher levels of antiviral-related inducible genes in peripheral blood, spleen, and thymus of chicken flocks. The results of a challenge assay revealed that the lowest detoxification rates of chicken IFN-α ranged from three to five days, suggesting a higher capacity to resist H9N2 subtype avian influenza virus. The present study obtained the optimal immune frequency and immunization period for chicken IFN-α to provide theoretical support for the optimal clinical application of IFN-α.

First detection of a G1-like H9N2 virus in Russia, 2018 / 대한수의학회지

Worldwide, avian influenza H9N2 viruses of different lineages are the most widespread viruses in poultry. However, to date, cases in Russia have not been documented. In this study, we report the first detection of a G1-like H9N2 virus from poultry sampled at live-bird markets in Russia (Far East region) during the winter of 2018 (isolate A/chicken/Amur_Russia/17/2018). We assume there has been further circulation of the A/chicken/Amur_Russia/17/2018 H9N2 virus in the Russian Far East with possible distribution to other regions or countries in 2018–2019.

Emergency risk communication in outbreaks

To provide WHO Member States, partners and stakeholders involved in emergency preparedness and response with the most up-to-date best practices on Emergency Risk Communication, this year WHO published "Communicating risk in public health emer-gencies - A WHO guideline for emergency risk communication (ERC) policy and prac-tice"

HLIP I in EMR countries

From 2014 to 2017, seven countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region of WHO benefited from the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness [PIP] Framework - Partnership Contribution [PC] to enhance their surveillance and laboratory capacities using the High-level Partnership Contribution Implementation Plan I [HLIP I] 2013-2016

GOARN and outbreak response in EMR

The Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network [GOARN] convened its 23rd steering committee meeting in New York, 20-21 June 2018. The aim of the meeting was to review recent deployments, activities and overall achievements of the network since it was established

Global strategy to Eliminate Yellow fever Epidemics [EYE]

On 10 April 2018, WHO and partners launched the Global Strategy to Eliminate Yellow fever Epidemics [EYE]. At a meeting in Abuja Nigeria, WHO, UNICEF, Gavi and health officials across the African continent reaffirmed their commitment to eliminate Yellow fever

EMFLU and improved influenza data sharing

Eastern Mediterranean Flu [EMFLU] Network is a web-based platform that is used to enter and analyze the influenza surveillance data at country level in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region [EMR]. It provides useful information for decision makers at country and regional levels regarding the trend of influenza and circulating viruses. Up to August 2018, 16 Member States in the EMR have shared their severe acute respiratory infections [SARI] data regularly through the platform

Influenza: Burden of disease estimation in Saudi Arabia

On July 2018, the Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia conducted a three-day workshop on the estimation of the influenza burden using Severe Acute Respiratory Infections [SARI] surveillance data. During the workshop, 12 participants from different regions of the country were trained by influenza experts from Infection Hazard Management unit [IHM] of WHO Regional office for Eastern Mediterranean Region [EMRO]

National Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plans [NPIPP] in the EMR

WHO EMRO in collaboration with the Global Influenza Programme [GIP] of WHO headquarters conducted a 3-day participatory workshop on National Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plan [NPIPP] in Tunis, Tunisia, from 13 to 15 August 2018. This workshop was attended by 35 participants from five countries. Three of these countries were from the Eastern Mediterranean Region [EMR] and two were from the WHO African region [AFR]

Biosafety in laboratories working with influenza in EMR

WHO and partners conducted a regional biosafety training course for containment of influenza and other infectious diseases of international concern from 16 –20 April, 2018 in Morocco. The training workshop was attended by participants from 21 countries in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region [EMR]

Chikungunya in Sudan

The Federal Ministry of Health, in recent time, has informed WHO of an outbreak of Chikungunya which has affected its eastern states. Till date, a total of 13,430 suspected cases were reported from the country, primarily from Kassala and Red Sea state. Samples have been tested both by PCR and by serology. A number of samples have also been tested posi-tive for dengue fever

Imported case of MERS

The Ministry of Health of Kuwait received a notification from IHR national focal point [NFP] of Republic of Korea [RoK] on a Korean male aged 61 years, who visited Kuwait during the period from 16 August to 6 September 2018 and was laboratory confirmed as MERS on 8 September 2018 upon his return to RoK

West Nile fever in Tunisia

As of 8 October 2018, the Ministry of Health of Tunisia reported 177 sus-pected cases of West Nile fever [WNF]. Out of these, 22 are probable and 17 are laboratory confirmed cases. One death has also been reported in a 27 year male who was hospitalized for meningo-encephalitis in September 2018

EWARN in humanitarian emergencies

As many as seven countries– Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Syria in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region have established an early warning system for disease outbreaks with a view to early detecting and rapidly investigating any public health event of potential concern. Such a system, in the absence of a routine disease surveillance system, needs continuous monitoring and assessment using a set of performance benchmarks

Rapid Response Team train-ing for MERS

Since the emergence of Middle East res-piratory syndrome coronavirus [MERS-Cov] in September 2013, Saudi Arabia has reported over 80% of the cases. Cur-rent scientific evidence suggests that dromedary camels are a major reservoir for MERS-Cov and an animal source of infection in humans has been implicated. Although there is no evidence of sus-tained human-to-human transmission, sporadic outbreaks and clusters of cases have been reported mainly in health care settings. This signifies the need for having a trained Rapid Response Team [RRT] on stand by for investigation of any sus-pected cluster in the community or in healthcare settings. Recently, the ministry of health of Saudi Arabia and WHO jointly organized two rounds of training for its RRTs specially focussing on inves-tigation of cluster of Middle East respira-tory syndrome [MERS]

Pandemic Influenza Severity Assessment [PISA] in EMR

The Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office of WHO, in collaboration with the Global Influenza Programme [GIP] of WHO/HQ and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [US-CDC], conducted a 4 day regional training workshop on determining influenza baselines and thresholds for Pandemic Influenza Severity Assessment [PISA] in Tunis, Tunisia, from 1 to 4 October 2018. The workshop was attended by 30 participants from 15 countries in the region

MERS in healthcare workers

Middle East respiratory syndrome [MERS] is an emerging viral respirato-ry disease caused by the MERS coro-navirus [MERS-Cov] that was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Human-to-human transmission has been observed to a limited extent from MERS-Cov and have primarily occurred in health care settings

Chikungunya update: Sudan

Sudan has had a major outbreak of Chikungunya since July 2018. A total of 20,110 cases have been reported since the outbreak began. No new cases of the disease were reported during the week ending 11th November 2018

Transition from EWARN to routine surveillance

A three days workshop was conducted in Damascus, Syria from 8-10 August 2018 to disseminate findings of Early Warning Alert and Response Network [EWARN] evaluation in Syria. Partici-pants included Ministry of Health [MOH] staff and technical EWARN officers. During this workshop the question of how and when to transition from EWARN to routine surveillance was examined