National Institute of Virology, Microbial Containment Complex, 130/1, Pashan Sus Road, Pashan, Pune-411021, India.
Abstracts of the papers presented at the International Conference of Indian Virological Society on “Emerging and Re-emerging viral Diseases of the Tropics and Subtropics” at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India, December 11–14, 2007.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza A virus has emerged as a serious pandemic threat over the last decade. The ongoing sporadic outbreaks of H5N1 influenza among domestic poultry and occasional transmission to human beings has raised major concern because of the direct link between exposure risks for humans and increased presence of potentially zooanthroponotic virus in poultry flocks (Influenza Report 2006). Continued surveillance is being carried out world wide to monitor the status of circulating strains of avian influenza virus, which helps to generate critical data for use in the selection and development of vaccine strains and to contribute to the global avian influenza surveillance network. The objective of our study was to detect and characterize avian influenza virus from surveillance specimens using one step RT-PCR. Faecal specimens of migratory birds and domestic poultry origin received from different sampling area in Maharashtra were screened by One-step RT-PCR with WHO recommended H5N1 specific primers for HA (H5–1 & H5–3) and NA (N1–1 & N1–2). Tissue samples received from dead and sick birds were also processed by same techniques. TaqMan probe based Real-Time PCR for Influenza A and H5 was also used to screen specimens. A total of 1843 faecal specimens were screened between January and September 2007. All of the specimens turned out to be negative for both Influenza A and H5N1. The above-mentioned assays were found very sensitive and effective to detect outbreak strains in earlier study from avian influenza group at NIV.
