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Page No. : 47-50

ABSTRACT

Avian influenza caused by H5N1 is one of the most important Zoonotic disease and is becoming great threat to poultry industry as well as to humans. Contaminated poultry meat may play role as reservoirs and sources of transmission for avian influenza virus. However, very little is known regarding the distribution of highly pathogenic (H5N1) avian influenza virus in poultry meat in tropical countries. The aim of this work was to study distribution of highly pathogenic (H5N1) avian influenza virus in meat from experimentally infected chicken and ducks. Three chicken and ducks were artificially infected with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1) virus isolates (A/duck/Tripura /103597/2008 and A/duck/Tripura /02CA10/2011) obtained from the "Avian influenza virus repository" of ICAR- National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal (NIHSAD). Different meat samples from the infected birds were collected. Presence of virus in all meat samples was confirmed by egg inoculation followed by haemagglutination test prior to use for the experiments. In the present study, chicken meat samples were found to have the highest viral load. The study also revealed that the initial viral load of both the isolates in chicken meat samples was considerably higher than that in duck meat samples. The study gives insights into the role of poultry meat in avian influenza virus transmission and helps in formulating avian influenza control strategies.
Keywords: HPAI; Meat-borne H5N1; meat viral load