Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012;7(3):e32873.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0032873. Epub 2012 Mar 13.

Influenza a viruses from wild birds in Guatemala belong to the North American lineage

Ana S González-Reiche  1 , María E Morales-Betoulle, Danilo Alvarez, Jean-Luc Betoulle, Maria L Müller, Silvia M Sosa, Daniel R Perez
Affiliations

Influenza a viruses from wild birds in Guatemala belong to the North American lineage

Ana S González-Reiche et al. PLoS One. 2012.

Abstract

The role wild bird species play in the transmission and ecology of avian influenza virus (AIV) is well established; however, there are significant gaps in our understanding of the worldwide distribution of these viruses, specifically about the prevalence and/or significance of AIV in Central and South America. As part of an assessment of the ecology of AIV in Guatemala, we conducted active surveillance in wild birds on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. Cloacal and tracheal swab samples taken from resident and migratory wild birds were collected from February 2007 to January 2010.1913 samples were collected and virus was detected by real time RT-PCR (rRT-PCR) in 28 swab samples from ducks (Anas discors). Virus isolation was attempted for these positive samples, and 15 isolates were obtained from the migratory duck species Blue-winged teal. The subtypes identified included H7N9, H11N2, H3N8, H5N3, H8N4, and H5N4. Phylogenetic analysis of the viral sequences revealed that AIV isolates are highly similar to viruses from the North American lineage suggesting that bird migration dictates the ecology of these viruses in the Guatemalan bird population.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Location of sample collection sites in the Atlantic (1 and 2) and the Pacific (3, 4, and 5) coasts of Guatemala.
Latitude and longitude of surveillance sites are provided in Table 1.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Phylogenetic trees for H5 and H7 HA genes.
Trees were generated in PAUP 4.0b10 using the Neighbor-Joining method with 1000 bootstrap replicates (bootstrap values above 70% are shown). Scale bar on the bottom-left indicates number of nucleotide substitutions per site.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Phylogenetic trees for H3, H8 and H11 HA genes.
Trees were generated in PAUP 4.0b10 using the Neighbor-Joining method with 1000 bootstrap replicates (bootstrap values above 70% are shown). Scale bar on the bottom-left indicates number of nucleotide substitutions per site.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Phylogenetic trees for N3, N4, and N9 NA genes.
Trees were generated in PAUP 4.0b10 using the Neighbor-Joining method with 1000 bootstrap replicates (bootstrap values above 70% are shown). Scale bar on the bottom-left indicates number of nucleotide substitutions per site.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Phylogenetic trees for N2 and N8 NA genes.
Trees were generated in PAUP 4.0b10 using Neighbor-Joining method with 1000 bootstrap replicates (bootstrap values above 70% are shown). Scale bar on the bottom-left indicates number of nucleotide substitutions per site.
Figure 6
Figure 6. Phylogenetic trees for internal gene segments PB2, PB1, and PA.
All trees were generated in PAUP 4.0b10 using Neighbor-Joining method with 1000 bootstrap replicates (bootstrap values above 70% are shown). Scale bar on the bottom-left indicates number of nucleotide substitutions per site.
Figure 7
Figure 7. Phylogenetic trees for internal gene segments NP, M and NS.
All trees were generated in PAUP 4.0b10 using Neighbor-Joining method with 1000 bootstrap replicates (bootstrap values above 70% are shown). Scale bar on the bottom-left indicates number of nucleotide substitutions per site.
Figure 8
Figure 8. Genome constellations of AIVs obtained from wild birds in Guatemala.
Nucleotide percent similarities are shown. The different colors represent different clades supported by bootstrap values >70%. *Isolate CIP049-01 was used as reference to estimate sequence percent similarities.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Chen H, Smith GJ, Zhang SY, Qin K, Wang J, et al. Avian flu: H5N1 virus outbreak in migratory waterfowl. Nature. 2005;436:191–192. - PubMed
    1. Feare CJ. Role of wild birds in the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 and implications for global surveillance. Avian Dis. 2010;54:201–212. - PubMed
    1. Feare CJ. The role of wild birds in the spread of HPAI H5N1. Avian Dis. 2007;51:440–447. - PubMed
    1. Munster VJ, Fouchier RA. Avian influenza virus: of virus and bird ecology. Vaccine. 2009;27:6340–6344. - PubMed
    1. Olsen B, Munster VJ, Wallensten A, Waldenstrom J, Osterhaus AD, et al. Global patterns of influenza a virus in wild birds. Science. 2006;312:384–388. - PubMed

Publication types

-