FIRST RECORD OF AVIAN INFLUENZA (H5N1) IN MIGRATORY BIRDS IN EGYPT

During migratory seasons (2005-2006), a total of 1304 living migratory birds belonging to19 different species were collected from Port Said, Domietta, Fayoum, Arish and Sharm-Elsheikh. All examined birds were apparently healthy. A total of 203(15.57%) from examined birds were positive for influenza A virus matrix gene when tested by real-time PCR. Duck species were the most common affected species. Positive samples for Flu-A matrix were tested for hemagglutinine (H) and if positive for H5, further testing for the neuraminidase (N1) by real time RT-PCR. Only two cases of Common teal species were PCR positive and the sequence from both bird samples were performed and posted on the GenBank as follow: Low pathogenic avian influenza "LPAI", (A/teal/Egypt/9885-NAMRU 3/2005 (H5) GenBank accession no. EF04262, and the highly pathogenic avian influenza "HPAI" (H5N1), (A/teal/Egypt/14051NAMRU 3/2005 (H5N1)), GenBank accession no. EF042624. Phylogenetic Analysis from highly pathogenic avian influenza strains in Egypt, from humans and animals, cluster together with a bootstrap support value of 98% (Figure, 2). The HPAI specimen EF042624 from Common teal along the northern coast of Egypt appears to have harbored a strain very closely related to the parent strain responsible for the HPAI H5N1 outbreak in Egypt in February 2006. Keyword; Avian influenza, wild birds, migratory birds, RT-PCR H5N1, CoreNucleotide and Sequences. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/viewer.feg?db=nuccorei email: magdi.saad.eg@med.navy.mil