Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 17, 2026

Avian Influenza Surveillance with FTA Cards: Field Methods, Biosafety, and Transportation Issues Solved
Published on: August 2, 2011
Tracking the evolution and geographic spread of Influenza A
Donovan Parks1, Norman Macdonald, Robert Beiko
1Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University and Dalhousie University.
Abstract:
The 2009 swine-origin strain of Influenza A H1N1 has spread to nearly all parts of the world, with 175 countries reporting confirmed cases thus far. Consistent with seasonal flu outbreaks, the current pandemic strain has shown rapid dispersal, with multiple examples of introduction into different geographic regions. Here we use an automated pipeline to collect data for analysis in the geospatial package GenGIS, which allows the geographic and temporal tracking of new sequence types and polymorphisms. Using this approach, we examine a pair of amino acid changes in the neuraminidase protein that are implicated in antibody recognition, and exhibit global dispersal with little or no geographic structure.
Related Concept Videos
Influenza
Viral Mutations
Infectious Diseases and Their Occurrence
Steps in Outbreak Investigation
Leaky Scanning
Investigation of Disease Outbreaks

