Predicting hotspots for influenza virus reassortment

• Published in: Emerging infectious diseases Vol. 19; no. 4; pp. 581 - 588
• Main Authors: Fuller, Trevon L, Gilbert, Marius, Martin, Vincent, Cappelle, Julien, Hosseini, Parviez, Njabo, Kevin Y, Abdel Aziz, Soad, Xiao, Xiangming, Daszak, Peter, Smith, Thomas B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States U.S. National Center for Infectious Diseases 01.04.2013; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Subjects: Analysis; Animals; Asia - epidemiology; Avian influenza; Avian influenza viruses; California; Coinfection; Disease Outbreaks - veterinary; East Asia; Egypt - epidemiology; Epidemics; Humans; Infection; influenza A virus H3N2 subtype; influenza A virus H5N1 subtype; Influenza A Virus, H3N2 Subtype - classification; Influenza A Virus, H3N2 Subtype - genetics; Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype - classification; Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype - genetics; influenza in birds; Influenza, Human - epidemiology; Influenza, Human - virology; Likelihood Functions; Models, Genetic; Orthomyxoviridae Infections - epidemiology; Orthomyxoviridae Infections - veterinary; Orthomyxoviridae Infections - virology; Phylogeography; Poultry - virology; reassortant viruses; Reassortant Viruses - classification; Reassortant Viruses - genetics; Swine - virology; viruses; zoonoses; Asia; Egypt; East Asia; California; influenza; viruses; avian influenza; influenza A virus H3N2 subtype; reassortant viruses; influenza A virus H5N1 subtype; zoonoses; influenza in birds
• ISSN: 1080-6040; 1080-6059
• DOI: 10.3201/eid1904.120903

The 1957 and 1968 influenza pandemics, each of which killed ≈1 million persons, arose through reassortment events. Influenza virus in humans and domestic animals could reassort and cause another pandemic. To identify geographic areas where agricultural production systems are conducive to reassortment, we fitted multivariate regression models to surveillance data on influenza A virus subtype H5N1 among poultry in China and Egypt and subtype H3N2 among humans. We then applied the models across Asia and Egypt to predict where subtype H3N2 from humans and subtype H5N1 from birds overlap; this overlap serves as a proxy for co-infection and in vivo reassortment. For Asia, we refined the prioritization by identifying areas that also have high swine density. Potential geographic foci of reassortment include the northern plains of India, coastal and central provinces of China, the western Korean Peninsula and southwestern Japan in Asia, and the Nile Delta in Egypt.