Abstract
Environmental transmission of viruses to humans has become an early warning for potential epidemic outbreaks, such as SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus outbreaks. Recently, an H7N9 virus, A/environment/Hebei/621/2019 (H7N9), was isolated by environmental swabs from a live poultry market in Hebei, China. We found that this isolate could be transmitted by direct contact and aerosol in mammals. More importantly, after 5 passages in mice, the virus acquired two adaptive mutations, PB1-H115Q and B2-E627K, exhibiting increased virulence and aerosol transmissibility. These results suggest that this H7N9 virus might potentially be transmitted between humans through environmental or airborne routes.
Highlights
The emergence of H7N9 avian influenza virus (AIV) has drawn the attention of the public due to its high mortality (Tanner et al, 2015)
From 2013 to 2016, the H7N9 AIVs isolated from patients in China had low pathogenicity, but in 2017, highly pathogenic H7N9 AIVs were isolated from patients (Zhang et al, 2013; Shi et al, 2018)
The ability to bind to human receptors has been identified as a major factor in the cross-species transmission of AIV
Summary
The emergence of H7N9 avian influenza virus (AIV) has drawn the attention of the public due to its high mortality (Tanner et al, 2015). AIV has spread worldwide (Zhu et al, 2016) and causes considerable economic losses and threatens public health. Some human cases of H7N9 were reported in other cities of China. From 2013 to 2016, the H7N9 AIVs isolated from patients in China had low pathogenicity, but in 2017, highly pathogenic H7N9 AIVs were isolated from patients (Zhang et al, 2013; Shi et al, 2018). From October 2016 to June 2017, 750 human cases of H7N9 AIV were reported nationwide, with 282 deaths (Ma et al, 2020)
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