Infection of Chickens Caused by Avian Influenza Virus A/H5N1 Delivered by Aerosol and Other Routes

Summary This study presents results of the study of infectivity of avian influenza virus (AIV) A subtype H5N1 strains isolated from agricultural birds across the territory of the Russian Federation and CIS countries. The results of the susceptibility of chickens to the AIV isolates delivered by the aerosol route and the dissemination of the virus in the organs of infected birds are presented. As was observed, the sensitivity of birds to AIV by the aerosol route of infection is 30 times higher than by intranasal route, 500 times higher than by the oral route and 10 000 times higher than by the intragastric route of infection, which is indicative of higher permissivity of respiratory organs to AIV. The highest titres of AIV A subtype H5N1(A/Chicken/Kurgan/05/2005 strain) in aerosol‐infected chickens were found in nasal cavity mucosa, lungs, cloaca, serum and kidney, where viable virus accumulation was detected by 18 h post‐infection (p.i.). The highest virus titres were observed 54 h p.i. in lungs, serum and kidney, reaching the value of 8.16 lg EID50/g(ml) in the lungs. The results showed that birds infected by the aerosol route developed higher titres of virus than those infected by other routes.