Emergence of a Reassortant 2.3.4.4b Highly Pathogenic H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus Containing H9N2 PA Gene in Burkina Faso, West Africa, in 2021
Lalidia Bruno Ouoba,
Lamouni Habibata-Zerbo,
Bianca Zecchin,
Giacomo Barbierato,
Sandaogo Hamidou-Ouandaogo,
Elisa Palumbo,
Edoardo Giussani,
Alessio Bortolami,
Mamadou Niang,
Adele Traore-Kam,
Calogero Terregino,
Mariétou Guitti-Kindo,
Angelique Angot,
Dominique Guigma,
Nicolas Barro,
Alice Fusaro,
Isabella Monne
Affiliations
Lalidia Bruno Ouoba
Laboratoire National d’Elevage, Ouagadougou 03 BP 907, Burkina Faso
Lamouni Habibata-Zerbo
Laboratoire National d’Elevage, Ouagadougou 03 BP 907, Burkina Faso
Bianca Zecchin
Division of Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, 35020 Legnaro, Italy
Giacomo Barbierato
Division of Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, 35020 Legnaro, Italy
Sandaogo Hamidou-Ouandaogo
Laboratoire National d’Elevage, Ouagadougou 03 BP 907, Burkina Faso
Elisa Palumbo
Division of Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, 35020 Legnaro, Italy
Edoardo Giussani
Division of Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, 35020 Legnaro, Italy
Alessio Bortolami
Division of Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, 35020 Legnaro, Italy
Mamadou Niang
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO-UN), Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD), Regional Office for Africa (RAF), Accra BP 1628, Ghana
Adele Traore-Kam
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO-UN), Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD), Ouagadougou BP 2540, Burkina Faso
Calogero Terregino
Division of Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, 35020 Legnaro, Italy
Mariétou Guitti-Kindo
Laboratoire National d’Elevage, Ouagadougou 03 BP 907, Burkina Faso
Angelique Angot
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation (FAO-UN), 00153 Rome, Italy
Dominique Guigma
Laboratoire National d’Elevage, Ouagadougou 03 BP 907, Burkina Faso
Nicolas Barro
Laboratoire de Biologie Moléculaire d’Epidémiologie et de Surveillance des Bactéries et Virus Transmis par les Aliments (LaBESTA), Secteur 28, LaBESTA s/c Université joseph Ki-Zerbo, Ouagadougou 03 BP 7021, Burkina Faso
Alice Fusaro
Division of Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, 35020 Legnaro, Italy
Isabella Monne
Division of Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, 35020 Legnaro, Italy
Since 2006, the poultry population in Burkina Faso has been seriously hit by different waves of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 epizootics. In December 2021, three distinct regions of Burkina Faso, namely, Gomboussougou, Bonyollo, and Koubri, detected HPAI H5N1 viruses in poultry. Whole genome characterization and statistical phylogenetic approaches were applied to shed light on the potential origin of these viruses and estimate the time of virus emergence. Our results revealed that the HPAI H5N1 viruses reported in the three affected regions of Burkina Faso cluster together within clade 2.3.4.4b, and are closely related to HPAI H5N1 viruses identified in Nigeria and Niger in the period 2021–2022, except for the PA gene, which clusters with H9N2 viruses of the zoonotic G1 lineage collected in West Africa between 2017 and 2020. These reassortant viruses possess several mutations that may be associated with an increased zoonotic potential. Although it is difficult to ascertain where and when the reassortment event occurred, the emergence of a H5N1/H9N2 reassortant virus in a vulnerable region, such as West Africa, raises concerns about its possible impact on animal and human health. These findings also highlight the risk that West Africa may become a new hotspot for the emergence of new genotypes of HPAI viruses.