Prevalence, genetics, and transmissibility in ferrets of Eurasian avian-like H1N1 swine influenza viruses
- 28 December 2015
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Vol. 113 (2), 392-397
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1522643113
Abstract
Pigs are important intermediate hosts for generating novel influenza viruses. The Eurasian avian-like H1N1 (EAH1N1) swine influenza viruses (SIVs) have circulated in pigs since 1979, and human cases associated with EAH1N1 SIVs have been reported in several countries. However, the biologic properties of EAH1N1 SIVs are largely unknown. Here, we performed extensive influenza surveillance in pigs in China and isolated 228 influenza viruses from 36,417 pigs. We found that 139 of the 228 strains from pigs in 10 provinces in China belong to the EAH1N1 lineage. These viruses formed five genotypes, with two distinct antigenic groups, represented by A/swine/Guangxi/18/2011 and A/swine/Guangdong/104/2013, both of which are antigenically and genetically distinct from the current human H1N1 viruses. Importantly, the EAH1N1 SIVs preferentially bound to human-type receptors, and 9 of the 10 tested viruses transmitted in ferrets by respiratory droplet. We found that 3.6% of children (≤10 y old), 0% of adults, and 13.4% of elderly adults (≥60 y old) had neutralization antibodies (titers ≥40 in children and ≥80 in adults) against the EAH1N1 A/swine/Guangxi/18/2011 virus, but none of them had such neutralization antibodies against the EAH1N1 A/swine/Guangdong/104/2013 virus. Our study shows the potential of EAH1N1 SIVs to transmit efficiently in humans and suggests that immediate action is needed to prevent the efficient transmission of EAH1N1 SIVs to humans.Keywords
Funding Information
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (31302108, 31521005)
- FAO (CHN/2013/001/LOA)
- Japan Agency for Medical Research and development, AMED (Japan Initiative for Global Research Network on Infectious Diseases)
This publication has 39 references indexed in Scilit:
- Virulence and transmissibility of H1N2 influenza virus in ferrets imply the continuing threat of triple-reassortant swine virusesProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2012
- Airborne Transmission of Influenza A/H5N1 Virus Between FerretsScience, 2012
- Experimental adaptation of an influenza H5 HA confers respiratory droplet transmission to a reassortant H5 HA/H1N1 virus in ferretsNature, 2012
- Pathogenesis and transmission of swine origin A(H3N2)v influenza viruses in ferretsProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2012
- Hemagglutinin–neuraminidase balance confers respiratory-droplet transmissibility of the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus in ferretsProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2011
- Adaptive strategies of the influenza virus polymerase for replication in humansProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2009
- Cross-Reactive Antibody Responses to the 2009 Pandemic H1N1 Influenza VirusThe New England Journal of Medicine, 2009
- Severe Respiratory Disease Concurrent with the Circulation of H1N1 InfluenzaThe New England Journal of Medicine, 2009
- Antigenic and Genetic Characteristics of Swine-Origin 2009 A(H1N1) Influenza Viruses Circulating in HumansScience, 2009
- Cases of Swine Influenza in Humans: A Review of the LiteratureClinical Infectious Diseases, 2007