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Viruses
. 2020 May 29;12(6):E591.
doi: 10.3390/v12060591.
Age-Dependent Lethality in Ducks Caused by Highly Pathogenic H5N6 Avian Influenza Virus
Yunyueng Jang 1 2 , Sang Heui Seo 1 2
Affiliations
- PMID: 32485904
- DOI: 10.3390/v12060591
Abstract
Ducks show notably higher resistance to highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses as compared to chickens. Here, we studied the age-dependent susceptibility in ducks to the infections caused by highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses. We intranasally infected ducks aged 1, 2, 4, and 8 weeks with highly pathogenic H5N6 avian influenza viruses isolated in South Korea in 2016. All the 1-and 2-week-old ducks died after infection, 20% of 3-week-old ducks died, and from the ducks aged 4 and 8 weeks, all of them survived. We performed microarray analysis and quantitative real-time PCR using total RNA isolated from the lungs of infected 2- and 4-week-old ducks to determine the mechanism underlying the age-dependent susceptibility to highly pathogenic avian influenza virus. Limited genes were found to be differentially expressed between the lungs of 2- and 4-week-old ducks. Cell damage-related genes, such as CIDEA and ND2, and the immune response-related gene NR4A3 were notably induced in the lungs of infected 2-week-old ducks compared to those in the lungs of infected 4-week-old ducks.
Keywords: H5N6; age-dependent lethality; avian influenza virus; ducks.