H5N1 Similarities Between Czech Republic Germany and Kuwait
Recombinomics Commentary
June 28, 2007
Reinking said an analysis of the viral DNA showed a 99.2-per-cent match between the check outbreak and the virus in dead swans in the German city of Nuremberg. Both samples were also very similar to viral DNA collected in Kuwait and sequenced in Weybridge, Britain.
The above comments support a wild bird source for the Czech outbreak, and confirm that all isolates are the Qinghai (Clade 2.2) strain. However, these isolates may form distinct sub-clades. The isolates in Kuwait were from 2007, as were the isolates above from the Czech Republic and Germany. Therefore they are likely to be similar because they have acquired common new polymorphisms. Media reports indicated there was 99.5 per cent identity between the Czech and Kuwait isolates.
These differences are markedly higher than the 0.06% difference between 2007 isolates from Hungary and England.
This type of common acquisitions was seen for NA G743A, which was largely restricted to Germany in early 2006, yet appeared on 2007 isolates in Russia, Egypt, and Ghana. Thus, it would be useful to trace individual polymorphisms in 2007 isolates in Germany, the Czech Republic, and Kuwait.
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