Zhang C, Jin Y, Cui H, Wang Z, Chen Z, Zhang L, So. Cross-Species Transmission Risks of a Quail-Origin H7N9 Influenza Virus from China Between Avian and Mammalian Hosts. Viruses. 2025; 17(10):1402
The H7N9 influenza viruses, which are capable of causing severe respiratory syndrome in humans, were first discovered to infect humans in 2013 and continue to pose a persistent public health threat. Quail has been proposed as a potential intermediate host that may facilitate the emergence of novel reassorted influenza A viruses with the capacity to infect humans across species barriers; however, information on the biological characterization of quail H7N9 remains limited. In this study, we isolated and identified an avian H7N9 influenza virus from quails, designated as A/quail/Hebei/CH06-07/2018 (H7N9) and abbreviated as CH06-07, in Hebei, China. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that both the HA gene and the NA gene of CH06-07 were clustered in the Eurasian lineage. Furthermore, CH06-07 exhibited binding affinity for both α2,3-linked and α2,6-linked sialic acid receptors and demonstrated high pathogenicity in both quails and mice. Notably, transmission studies revealed that CH06-07 not only exhibited efficient inter-quail transmission and inter-guinea pig transmission but also demonstrated effective cross-species transmission. Importantly, infected quails and guinea pigs generated significant quantities of viral aerosols (≥18,998 ± 1672 copies per liter of air at 3 days post-infection), and infectious viruses were successfully recovered from environmental aerosols. These findings highlight the necessity for continuous surveillance of the prevalence of quail-origin H7N9 influenza A viruses in poultry populations due to their potential threat to human health.
See Also:
Latest articles in those days:
- High-throughput pseudovirus neutralisation maps the antigenic landscape of influenza A/H1N1 viruses 6 hours ago
- Timely vaccine strain selection and genomic surveillance improve evolutionary forecast accuracy of seasonal influenza A/H3N2 6 hours ago
- Evaluation of a Novel Data Source for National Influenza Surveillance: Influenza Hospitalization Data in the National Healthcare Safety Network, United States, September 2021-April 2024 6 hours ago
- Scenarios for pre-pandemic zoonotic influenza preparedness and response 6 hours ago
- Stability of Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Virus in Milk from Infected Cows and Virus-Spiked Milk 1 days ago
[Go Top] [Close Window]


