PCR –RFLP analysis of HA and NA genes of a H5N1 isolate being a possible escape mutant

Abstract

New AIV strain continue to emerge because of genetic instability of influenza virus and lack of proof reading and repair mechanism makes AIV genome easily prone to error that occur during replication. This study provide an update of H5N1 being an escape mutant which escaped from a immunized bird in aimmunization experiment conducted on birds with virus strain A/Duck/Tripura/103597/2008(H5N1). This article provide an update of H5N1 virus as it was evolving, creating the potential for new strain that is efficiently transmitted from birds to birds, birds to human or human to human remains highly lethal. The emergence of escape mutant may be either because of antigenic drift or genetic shift which results in H5N1 variants.