In vitro Adoption and Propagation of High Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) Virus Subtype H5N1 in non-avian Host System

Abstract

The paradigmatic, fatal and devastating ailment called avian influenza or bird flu is a highly contagious viral disease caused by type A influenza virus, It primarily affects the respiratory, digestive and/or nervous system of chickens, turkeys, guinea fowls and other avian species and less commonly pigs and other species of mammals including human. In India, The first pandemic outbreak of Avian Influenza was reported during 2006. In this study, we selected an isolate of high pathogenic avian influenza (A/Ck/Jalgaon/India/12419/2006) H5N1 virus and propagated in chicken embryo fibroblast. Later this virus was adopted and propagated in Madin-Darby canine kidney cells (MDCK) and Vero cells. Infected non-avian cells with an avian virus shown cytopathic effects like rounding, cytoplasmic elongation, syncytia formation and later stages fluffing from the attached surface. The harvested virus suspension shown increased haemagglutination titre (HA) than viral suspension from chicken embryo fibroblast culture and the presence of virus was confirmed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The obtained result reveals that virus had capacity to adopt for the invitro culture and propagate in non avian host cells with higher titre. This infers the chance of virus to cross the host barrier and probable chance of infection in human being.