RESUMO
An avian influenza virus (AIV), A/Emu/Israel/552/2010/(H5N1), was isolated from a dead emu that was found in the Ein Gedi oasis near the Dead Sea. The virus molecular characterization was performed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and real-time RT-PCR using AIV subtype-specific primers. The virus was of high pathogenicity, according to its intravenous pathogenicity index of 2.85 and the nucleotide sequencing at the cleavage site of the hemagglutinin gene, GERRRKKR, which is typical for highly pathogenic chicken influenza A viruses.
Assuntos
Dromaiidae , Hemaglutininas/genética , Virus da Influenza A Subtipo H5N1/genética , Virus da Influenza A Subtipo H5N1/isolamento & purificação , Influenza Aviária/virologia , Animais , Feminino , Virus da Influenza A Subtipo H5N1/classificação , Influenza Aviária/epidemiologia , Israel/epidemiologia , Dados de Sequência Molecular , Filogenia , Reação em Cadeia da Polimerase Via Transcriptase ReversaRESUMO
Our aim was to characterize the A/ck/Israeli/1055/2008 (H5N1) avian influenza virus that was isolated at the beginning of 2008, and to establish the phylogenetic relationship of this isolate to other H5N1 viruses that were recently isolated in adjacent countries. In light of a study of complete nucleotide sequences of all the genes we found that the isolate (year 2008) was closely related to the H5N1 viruses isolated in Egypt, Israel and Gaza in 2006. The Israeli isolate had the hemagglutinin-connecting peptide with a polybasic amino acid insertion. The most host-restriction sites of the 2008 isolate were typical of avian hosts, with one exception: K627 at the PB2 protein. As compared with previous local H5N1 isolates, a high mutation rate was found at the HA gene, which antigenic sites were under positive selection pressure.
