Novel reassortant of H9N2 avian influenza viruses isolated from chickens and quails in Egypt

Vet World Vol.14 August-2021 Article-21

Research Article

Veterinary World, 14(8): 2142-2149

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2021.2142-2149

Moataz Elsayed¹, AbdelSatar Arafa¹, Shahira Abdelwahab², Amro Hashish^1,3, and Ahmed Youssef⁴

1. Reference Laboratory for Veterinary Quality Control on Poultry Production, Animal Health Research Institute, P.O. Box 264, Dokki, Giza 12618, Egypt.
2. Department of Virology, Faculty of veterinary medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, 41522, Egypt.
3. Department of Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
4. Animal Hygiene and Zoonoses, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, 41522, Egypt.

Background and Aim: Poultry infections with H9N2 avian influenza viruses (AIVs) are endemic in Egypt. This study determined the genetic changes in the sequences of H9N2 AIVs isolated from chicken and quails in Egypt, including determining genetic reassortment and detecting the main genetic changes in hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) genes.

Materials and Methods: Swab samples were collected from chicken and quails, examined through reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and AIVs from positive samples were isolated in embryonated chicken eggs. Complete genome sequencing and phylogenetic analyses were conducted for two H9N2 AIV isolates, and sequences of HA and NA gene segments were analyzed in another two isolates.

Results: A novel reassortant virus was identified from a commercial chicken flock (A/chicken/Egypt/374V/2016) and quails from a live bird market (A/quail/Egypt/1253V/2016). The reassortant viruses acquired four genome segments from the classic Egyptian H9N2 viruses (HA, NA, NP, and M) and four segments from Eurasian AIVs (PB2, PB1, PA, and NS). Many genetic changes have been demonstrated in HA and NA genes. The isolated novel reassortant H9N2 virus from quails showed amino acid mutations in the antigenic sites on the globular head of the mature HA monomer matched with the parent Egyptian H9N2 virus.

Conclusion: This work described the genetic characterization of a novel reassortment of the H9N2 virus in Egypt. The emergence of new reassorted AIV viruses and genome variability raises the concern of an influenza pandemic with zoonotic potentials. Keywords: genes, H9N2, influenza, mutations, poultry, reassortment.

Keywords: genes, H9N2, influenza, mutations, poultry, reassortment.

How to cite this article: Elsayed M, Arafa A, Abdelwahab S, Hashish A, Youssef A (2021) Novel reassortant of H9N2 avian influenza viruses isolated from chickens and quails in Egypt, Veterinary World, 14(8): 2142-2149.

Received: 22-03-2021 Accepted: 09-07-2021 Published online: 20-08-2021

Corresponding author: Ahmed Youssef E-mail: ahmed_ibrahim@vet.suez.edu.eg

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2021.2142-2149

Copyright: Elsayed, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.