Evolution of the A/Chicken/Pennsylvania/83 (H5N2) influenza virus

The epidemiological features of the H5N2 outbreak of influenza in poultry were studied by sequencing the HA genes of several viruses isolated during the epidemic. Comparison of the nucleotide sequences of the HA genes indicated there was a single introduction of virulent virus. The variation rate (silent mutations) in the HA gene of the virulent Ck/Penn virus was 9.0 or 14.4% per 10 years depending on the viruses compared and was similar to that in H3 HA gene of human influenza A virus. The virulent and avirulent viruses isolated after October 1983 were derived from a common ancestoral virus and the virulent virus did not supersede the avirulent virus, instead, the virulent and avirulent viruses coexisted and evolved separately during the course of the epidemic. The evolutionary changes in the HA of H5N2 viruses that occurred during the epidemic permitted us to establish that a virus (A/Chick/Washington/84) that was isolated 8 months after the last H5N2 virus had been isolated from poultry in Pennsylvania belonged to the family of potentially dangerous H5N2 viruses and was a direct descendent of the virus that spread to Maryland and Virginia. All of the virulent Ck/Penn viruses retained the amino acid changes at residues 13 and 69 in the HA.