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serious disease or mortality in domestic poultry yet low pathogenic H5 and H7 ... Highly pathogenic cause severe clinical signs and/or high mortality in ...

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Fact SheetPage 1Fact SheetAvian Influenza VirusesAvian influenza (AI) is a contagious viral infection that primarily affects birds and mayinfect other species. Wild waterfowl are a natural reservoir of a family of viruses called Influenza A. Theseviruses are not usually harmful to wild waterfowl. The highly pathogenic Asian strain ofthe of the H5N1 virus is an exception it is known to kill both wild birds and commercialpoultry.All viruses are not equal. While all are part of the same family several Influenza Aviruses can exist at the same time in various mixtures in wild birds and combine in anumber of ways. For example not all H5N1 viruses are equal different strains ofH5N1 can have very different characteristics.In order to make an assessment about the risk or relative danger that a particular virusmay pose it is important to consider three distinguishing characteristics of the virus: theH and Ntype; the pathogenicity (high vs low); and of critical importance the strainor genetic characteristics often based on geographic origin (ex. Asian NorthAmerican European).1.H and N TypesThe first step in identifying a virus is to characterize its Htype and Ntype. The virusesare named according to protein projections on the surface of the virus calledhemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N) and the combination of the two provides thebasic nomenclature of the virus type (ex. H5N1 or H7N3). There are 16 different Hsand 9 different Ns meaning that there are 144 possible combinations.Identifying the Htype of the virus is of critical importance as it provides an indicationof the virulence or pathogenicity of the virus. The CFIA and international veterinarycommunity pay particular attention to the H5 and H7 subtypes of the virus given theability of these two Htypes to mutate from low pathogenic to highly pathogenic afterthey infect domestic birds. It is these two Htypes that have been known to causeserious disease or mortality in domestic poultry yet low pathogenic ...

Source: www.chicken.ca

 

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