Molecular Characterization of a Novel Avian Influenza A (H2N9) Strain Isolated from Wild Duck in Korea in 2018

[tetano]

Viruses. 2019 Nov 10;11(11). pii: E1046. doi: 10.3390/v11111046. Molecular Characterization of a Novel Avian Influenza A (H2N9) Strain Isolated from Wild Duck in Korea in 2018.

Yeo SJ¹, Than DD¹, Park HS², Sung HW³, Park H¹.
Author information

1 Zoonosis Research Center, Department of Infection Biology, School of Medicine, Wonkwang University, Iksan 54538, Korea. 2 GnCBio Inc, 4F, Yegan Plaza, 36, Banseok-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34069, Korea. 3 College of Veterinary Medicine, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 24341, Korea.

Abstract

A novel avian influenza virus (A/wild duck/Korea/K102/2018) (H2N9) was isolated from wild birds in South Korea in 2018, and phylogenetic and molecular analyses were conducted on complete gene sequences obtained by next-generation sequencing. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) genes of the A/wild duck/Korea/K102/2018 (H2N9) virus belonged to the Eurasian countries, whereas other internal genes (polymerase basic protein 1 (PB1), PB2, nucleoprotein (NP), polymerase acidic protein (PA), matrix protein (M), and non-structural protein (NS)) belonged to the East Asian countries. A monobasic amino acid (PQIEPR/GLF) at the HA cleavage site, E627 in the PB2 gene, and no deletion of the stalk region in the NA gene indicated that the A/wild duck/Korea/K102/2018 (H2N9) isolate was a typical low pathogenicity avian influenza (LPAI). Nucleotide sequence similarity analysis of HA revealed that the highest homology (98.34%) is to that of A/duck/Mongolia/482/2015 (H2N3), and amino acid sequence of NA was closely related to that of A/duck/Bangladesh/8987/2010 (H10N9) (96.45%). In contrast, internal genes showed homology higher than 98% compared to those of other isolates derived from duck and wild birds of China or Japan in 2016-2018. The newly isolated A/wild duck/Korea/K102/2018 (H2N9) strain is the first reported avian influenza virus in Korea, and may have evolved from multiple genotypes in wild birds and ducks in Mongolia, China, and Japan.


KEYWORDS:

H2N9; Korea; novel avian influenza virus isolate; wild duck

PMID: 31717636 DOI: 10.3390/v11111046