Gharbiya H5N1 Sequences in Beni Suef Egypt
Recombinomics Commentary
November 3, 2007
Recently, HA sequences from Egypt have been released by Friedrich-Loeffler Institute and the Veterinary School in Beni-Suef. Included in this list was A/chicken/Egypt/F6/2007 which was isolated in Beni Suef on March 6, 2006. This sequence is closely related to sequences from the Gharbiya cluster, and the sequences include changes in or adjacent to the receptor binding domain (V223I and M230I). Previously, this combination had only been detected in the fatally infected cluster as well as a chicken from Gharbiya. The above isolate represents the first isolate outside of the Gharbiya, which is in the Nile Delta. All patients infected with H5N1 contain M230I died.
The human cluster was also had N294S, which confirmed resistance to oseltamivir. N294S was in samples collected prior to oseltamivir treatment. Therefore the NA sequence from this isolate would be useful.
Similarly, NA sequences for the other isolates would be useful. The HA sequences included chicken isolates with the 3 BP deletion. Previously this deletion was found in human isolates from the regions, as well as birds from Hunan province in China. Some of the more recent human isolates with the 3 BP deletion was well as poultry isolates from Gharbiya had NA G743A, which appeared concurrently in Moscow, Ghana, and multiple genetic backgrounds in Egypt. It was also present in the recent isolate from Krasnodar, which is closely related to earlier isolates from Tyva/Mongolia, which was true for the isolates from the widespread outbreaks in Germany this summer.
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