Darrell Kapczynski

Avian influenza virus (AIV) is a highly contagious and lethal disease that can have major impacts on the global poultry industry and food supply. While more frequent in Asia and Europe, highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) outbreaks have traditionally been rare in the U.S. However, in recent years, the U.S. has seen an increase in the incidence of HPAIV outbreaks in wild birds and comme ...

IntroductionA novel H7N9 influenza A virus emerged in humans in Eastern China in February of 2013. Cases were often severe and the case fatality rate is approximately 32%. The viral genome was rapidly characterized and was revealed to contain a novel constellation of genes from avian influenza viruses from several Eurasian sublineages most of which had been previously detected in China (Kageyama e ...

BackgroundAn H5 HPAIV outbreak that began in December 2014 and lasted 6 months through June 2015 was the 5th highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) outbreak in the US since the 1920’s and was the most geographically widespread. Direct and indirect costs to the US economy were estimated to be near $3.3 billion USD [1]. The hemagglutinin (HA) gene was determined to belong to clade 2.3 ...

1. IntroductionSince 1990's, there has been a significant increase in the number of highly pathogenic (HP) avian influenza (AI) outbreaks and also in the number of birds involved in those outbreaks [1,2]. The most notable of these recent HPAI outbreaks is a series of H5N1 outbreaks started in China and Hong Kong since 1996, which then spread to other parts of the world including South-East Asia, t ...