Commentary
Fujian H5N1 in Japan and Primorsky Russia Match
Recombinomics Commentary 19:17
May 23, 2008
Sequences from six (PB2, PB1, PA, NP, NA, NS) of the eight gene segments of H5N1 from a chicken in Primorie, A/chicken/Primorje/1/2008, have been deposited at Genbank by the Ivanovsky Virology Institute in Moscow. These sequences are closely related to the recently released sequences from Japan, A/whooper swan/Hokkaido/1/2008. There are only two differences in the NA gene, firmly linking the Russian sequences to the whooper swans in Japan (see satellite map).
Thus, these isolates are also largely clade 2.3.4 and the NA sequence most closely related to the isolates from Russia and Japan are A/human/China/GD02/2006 from an H5N1 infected patient from Guangdong.
The outbreak in southeastern Russia was last month and signal Fujian H5N1 transport and transmission by long range migratory birds. These data add support to a global expansion of these sequences and highlight the need for active surveillance that does not rely of false negatives to control concerns.
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