Serological and molecular survey of avian influenza H9N2 infection in human poultry farm industries

Influenza virus H9N2 Low Pathogenicity of the viruses that are causing the disease in 1999, two 1 and 4-year-old girl in Hong Kong. Although influenza A H9N2 subtype virus is considered as widely spread low pathogen in poultry, however there are a few reports of human infection by this virus. This study was conducted to evaluate if such infection in human related by Poultry Farm Industries i.e. workers of slaughter house, poultry farms, and poultry clinics in Iran has occurred or not. In this study, sera and swabs-nasal and throat-were collected from workers of slaughter houses, poultry farms, Razi institute. To prevent false positive and negative results in HI test the sera were treated by trypsin-periodate and concentrated RBC respectively. RT-PCR was accomplished seeking HA and NP genes of H9N2 subtype influenza viruses. Of 148 sera HI titers, two and 17 samples were 1/160 and 1/40 respectively for antibody against H9N2 influenza virus. The higher titers belonged to slaughter house workers. No viruses were detected in RT-PCR. The positive sera for antibody against H9N2 influenza virus showed a changing tendency of these viruses toward infecting human tracheal epithelia. However the highest titer in slaughter house worker showed the need to close contact with poultry and their feeces for infection to be occurred. It means that the virus needs more circulation in human population to be adapted as true human influenza virus

Production and characterization of monoclonal antibodies against brucella S [99] surface antigens

By immunizing mice with killed whole bacterial cells of Brucella abortus S [99], a panel of six hybridomas producing monoclonal antibodies [mAb] specific for the surface antigens of this bacterium were produced. ELISA was used to screen the hybridoma supernatants. Immunoblots of the cell extract indicated that three mAb were specific for S-LPS [Ba-1, Ba-2, Ba-3] and three others were reactive with major outer membrane proteins [OMP] [Ba-4, Ba-5, Ba-6]. The OMP recognized by these antibodies were the proteins with molecular masses of 25-27 kDa [Ba-4, Ba-5] and 36-38 kDa [Ba-6]. None of the four mAb including Ba-3, Ba-4, Ba-5 and Ba-6 cross reacted with any other bacteria close to Brucella abortus, but Ba-1 and Ba-2 cross reacted with B. melitensis 16M and B. suis. By using cell extract and killed whole cell Ag in ELISA, it was indicated that all mAb except Ba-6 have better reactivity with cell extract Ag, but Ba-6 mAb reacted with killed whole cell Ag better than cell extract Ag