Avian influenza viruses isolated in Japan

Currently, H5N1 influenza viruses remain a serious public health concern in Asia and now in Europe. We showed that the H5N1 viruses associated with outbreaks of HPAI in chickens in Japan were genotypically closely related to an H5N1 virus isolated from a chicken in China in 2003 (genotype V), but were different from those prevalent in southeastern Asia in 2003-2004 (i.e., genotype Z). H5N1 viruses were also isolated from duck meat imported from China during this routine surveillance in May of 2003. We characterized these H5N1 isolates and found that poultry products contaminated with influenza viruses of high pathogenic potential to mammals are a threat to public health even in countries where the virus is not enzootic and represent a possible source of influenza outbreaks in poultry.