Influenza A virus in the Western Arctic

Abstract

Small bays of bird bazaars of the Arctic Kola Peninsula (Barents Sea) have been studied. RNA of influenza A virus was found in the surface microlayer (SM) and aerosol samples from the bays located beneath bird colonies. The nucleotide sequencing of the PCR fragments from the SM and the sea aerosol showed their identity for each bay. Virus transfer mechanism along the “surface microlayer - sea aerosol” path has been proposed. The kinetic scheme of the virus-host-environment interaction, which allows the dependence of the viral population size on the temperature to be simulated, has been developed.

Keywords

• western arctic
• surface microlayer
• sea aerosol
• influenza virus
• virus transfer mechanism