Location: Virus and Prion Research
Project Number: 5030-32000-231-084-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2020
End Date: Aug 31, 2025
Objective:
The goal of this collaboration proposal is to use advanced phylogenetic analyses, protein modeling, and antigenic cartography resources to further characterize IAV from swine in Brazil.
Approach:
Samples will be collected from nursery pigs from farms located in Southern, Midwestern, and Southeastern Brazil and screened for IAV by RT-PCR. Positive samples will be isolated and submitted for hemagglutinin and neuraminidase and/or genome sequencing. Phylogenetic analyses will then be conducted to study genetic evolution within swine and relationships to human seasonal and variant IAV. Since nucleotide and amino acid sequences alone may not accurately define the antigenic property of a virus, it is necessary to incorporate multiple approaches to assess significant change. Computational tools to quantify and visualize the data are critical as the data sets become more complex. The use of a common set of sera that includes current human seasonal viruses will allow incorporation of the Brazilian swine viruses for a global understanding of the antigenic diversity swine IAV. We will use antigenic cartography to quantify the evolution of swine influenza viruses in pigs and their relationship to current and previously circulating human influenza virus strains.
