Transmission of a 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza virus occurs before fever is detected, in the ferret model.
Citation:
Roberts KL, Shelton H, Stilwell P, Barclay WS, Transmission of a 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza virus occurs before fever is detected, in the ferret model., PloS one, 7, 8, 2012, e43303Download Item:
Abstract:
During the early phase of the 2009 influenza pandemic, attempts were made to contain the spread of the virus. Success of
reactive control measures may be compromised if the proportion of transmission that occurs before overt clinical symptoms
develop is high. In this study we investigated the timing of transmission of an early prototypic strain of pandemic H1N1
2009 influenza virus in the ferret model. Ferrets are the only animal model in which this can be assessed because they
display typical influenza-like clinical signs including fever and sneezing after infection. We assessed transmission from
infected animals to sentinels that were placed either in direct contact or in adjacent cages, the latter reflecting the
respiratory droplet (RD) transmission route. We found that pre-symptomatic influenza transmission occurred via both
contact and respiratory droplet exposure before the earliest clinical sign, fever, developed. Three of 3 animals exposed in
direct contact between day 1 and 2 after infection of the donor animals became infected, and 2/3 of the animals exposed at
this time period by the RD route acquired the infection, with the third animal becoming seropositive indicating either a low
level infection or significant exposure. Moreover, this efficient transmission did not temporally correlate with respiratory
symptoms, such as coughs and sneezes, but rather with the peak viral titre in the nose. Indeed respiratory droplet
transmission did not occur late in infection, even though this was when sneezing and coughing were most apparent. None
of the 3 animals exposed at this time by the RD route became infected and these animals remained seronegative at the end
of the experiment. These data have important implications for pandemic planning strategies and suggest that successful
containment is highly unlikely for a human-adapted influenza virus that transmits efficiently within a population
Author's Homepage:
http://people.tcd.ie/krobertsDescription:
PUBLISHED
Author: ROBERTS, KIM
Type of material:
Journal ArticleCollections
Series/Report no:
PloS one7
8
Availability:
Full text availableKeywords:
influenza pandemicSubject (TCD):
Immunology, Inflammation & Infection , INFLUENZA , Molecular Biology , VirologyDOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0043303ISSN:
1932-6203Metadata
Show full item recordLicences: