Isolation of influenza viruses from exotic and Central European birds

In the course of a study which was made in order to contribute to the knowledge about influenza viruses in birds, 18 strains of avian Influenza-A-subtypes were isolated from cloaca swabs. From the Central European bird species, one strain of Influenza A/England/62 was isolated from a mallard. All other species of birds obtained from three different biotopes from Austria and Hungary showed negative results. The other 17 influenza strains were isolated from imported birds from Senegal. Nine of these strains corresponded to subtype A/duck/England/62, five to subtype duck/England/56. One isolated strain showed a relation to A/duck/England/56 in terms of the hemagglutinin and to chicken/Brescia/1902 in terms of the neuraminidase. Two other strains reacted best with antisera against duck/England/62 in the hemagglutination inhibition test; the neuraminidase inhibition test showed a relation to subtype quail/Italy/65. The Newcastle disease-Virus was not isolated in any sample.