Detection of H5N1 in poultry
The sampled poultry were chickens, domestic ducks,
geese, pigeons, and turkeys in backyard flocks. The wild birds were both land birds, principally Passeriformes and
Columbiformes, and water birds, Anseriformes and Charadriiformes. We detected H5N1 by RT-PCR in cloacal and
tracheal swabs collected from chickens and domestic geese
(Fig. 1, Table 1). HA gene sequences were obtained from
the positive samples (GenBank accession numbers:
JN807778–JN807779). We detected H5N1 by HI tests in
serum samples collected from chickens, domestic ducks,
and domestic geese. Of these seropositive poultry samples,
all had HI titers specific to H5N1 80 and 38% had very
high titers 1280 HI units. H5N1 was only detected by RTPCR in Fayoum, whereas seropositives were more widespread geographically (Fig. 1).