Virus isolation and molecular epidemiology of highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N8) from an outbreak in free-ranging wild birds, India 2016

We report the molecular epidemiology of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus involved in an outbreak causing death in free-ranging wild birds at Mysore, Karnataka state of India. The virus was typed as HPAI A(H5N8) by conventional and TaqMan probe based realtime PCR assays. Six isolates of HPAI virus were recovered in 9-day-old embryonated chicken eggs. Haemagglutinin gene-based phylogeny of virus isolates showed > 99.9% nucleotide sequence identity with HPAI A(H5N8) isolates from migratory birds and domestic poultry from China and Korea indicating either these wild birds have routed their migration through Korea and/or eastern China or these dead birds must have directly or indirectly contacted with wild birds migrating from Eastern China and/or Korean regions. The study emphasises the role of migratory wild birds in spread of HPAI across the globe.