Comparative study of avian influenza virus propagation in the cell culture and chick embryos

: Comparative reproduction studies of 7 avian influenza virus strains (H5N1, H5N2, H3N2, H4N6, H7N7) in Vero and MDCK cell lines have indicated that the MDCK cell line is an optimal substrate for all study strains. The maximum viral output depends on trypsin concentrations and infection doses, which can differ for individual viral strains. The use of the optimal parameters of avian influenza virus replication in the MDCK cell lines yields virus titers comparable with virus reproduction in the chick embryos. The reproductive studies of the same avian influenza virus strains in chick embryos have shown that the maximum virus multiplication is seen when observing the optimum incubation time for infected embryos, which may be dissimilar in different strains. A considerable increase in hemagglutinin output can be achieved on adding trypsin to the infected chick embryos.