Introduction and enzootic of A/H5N1 in Egypt: Virus evolution, pathogenicity and vaccine efficacy ten years on.

It is almost a decade since the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus (A/H5N1) of clade 2.2.1 was introduced to Egypt in 2005, most likely, via wild birds; marking the longest endemic status of influenza viruses in poultry outside Asia. The endemic A/H5N1 in Egypt still compromises the poultry industry, poses serious hazards to public health and threatens to become potentially pandemic. The control strategies adopted for A/H5N1 in Egyptian poultry using diverse vaccines in commercialized poultry neither eliminated the virus nor did they decrease its evolutionary rate. Several virus clades have evolved, a few of them disappeared and others prevailed. Disparate evolutionary traits in both birds and humans were manifested by accumulation of clade-specific mutations across viral genomes driven by a variety of selection pressures. Viruses in vaccinated poultry populations displayed higher mutation rates at the immunogenic epitopes, promoting viral escape and reducing vaccine efficiency. On the other hand, viruses isolated from humans displayed changes in the receptor binding domain, which increased the viral affinity to bind to human-type glycan receptors. Moreover, viral pathogenicity exhibited several patterns in different hosts. This review aims to provide an overview of the viral evolution, pathogenicity and vaccine efficacy of A/H5N1 in Egypt during the last ten years.

Emergence of a novel cluster of influenza A(H5N1) virus clade 2.2.1.2 with putative human health impact in Egypt, 2014/15.

A distinct cluster of highly pathogenic avian influenzaviruses of subtype A(H5N1) has been found to emergewithin clade 2.2.1.2 in poultry in Egypt since summer2014 and appears to have quickly become predominant.Viruses of this cluster may be associated withincreased incidence of human influenza A(H5N1) infectionsin Egypt over the last months.

Survey of residues of organochlorine pesticides in some marketable Egyptian fish.

One hundred random samples representing 34 species of marketable fish were collected from 8 Egyptian governorates during the period March 1986 to March 1988 and were analyzed for the presence of some organochlorine pesticides. The results showed the predominance of beta-BHC and lindane at maximum levels of 435.30 and 59.00 micrograms/kg, respectively, for fish samples obtained from Damietta governorate. The corresponding levels of aldrin, and o,p'-DDT were 34.27 and 734.10 micrograms/kg, respectively, for fish from the Red Sea governorate. gamma-Chlordane, p,p'-DDE, and p,p'-DDT were found in fish from Ismailia governorate at respective maximum levels of 36.17, 234.40, and 57.19 microgram/kg. Heptachlor was identified at 8.50 micrograms/kg in Port Said governorate fish and o,p'-DDE at 10.59 micrograms/kg in Suez governorate fish. Mirex, on the other hand, could not be detected in any of the samples investigated.

Toxicity of Aspergillus flavus cultures isolated from Egypt.

Aflatoxin produced by 61.14% of the Aspergillus flavus cultures, isolated from Egypt. A wide potential range for aflatoxins B and G groups was obvious among the isolates. The concentration of aflatoxin B, produced by toxigenic cultures, ranged from 1,500 to 81,000 p.p.b. (mug/kg substrate), corresponding to 1,900 to 184,000 p.p.b. for aflatoxin G. However, 7.59% of the isolates produced more than 50,000 p.p.b. of aflatoxins B + G.