Sequence of Crested Eagle H5N1 Smuggled into Belgium
Recombinomics Commentary
April 4, 2005
The sequence of the HA gene of an H5N1 isolate from the crested eagles smuggled into Belgium is available at GenBank.
There are 645 bp available for A/crested eagle/Belgium/01/2004. The sequence is closely related to the HA from the isolate, A/Thailand/Kamphaengphet-Nontaburi/04(H5N1), from the mother of the index case in Thailand as well as isolates from tigers (A/tiger/Thailand/CU-T3/2004(H5N1), A/tiger/Thailand/SPB-1/2004(H5N1), that died at the Sri Racha tiger zoo last season. Sequences from isolates from chickens and patients in Thailand are also closely related.
Although the birds came from Tibet, the sequence data would point toward infection in Thailand.
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