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Improving the identification of influenza : a virus from wild bird faecal samples in South Africa

Dissertation (MSc (Production Animal Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2021.

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Other Authors: Abolnik, Celia
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2022
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Abolnik, Celia
author_browse Abolnik, Celia
author_facet Abolnik, Celia
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2021 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Dissertation (MSc (Production Animal Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2021.
format Thesis
id oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/86800
institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:37:55.093Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2022
publishDateRange 2022
publishDateSort 2022
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
record_format dspace
source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/86800 Improving the identification of influenza : a virus from wild bird faecal samples in South Africa Abolnik, Celia u20450011@tuks.co.za Phiri, Thandeka Precious UCTD Influenza A virus Wild bird Bird faecal Pan-genome Faecal samples Wild ducks South Africa Dissertation (MSc (Production Animal Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2021. Influenza A virus (IAV) is a single-stranded negative-sense RNA virus that is a member of the Orthomyxoviridae group. IAV has been detected in over 100 bird species from 26 different families, although Anseriformes and Charadriiformes are considered the natural host of the virus. Surveillance of wild birds for IAV is important as it plays a role in the early detection system for the introduction of potentially dangerous IAV strains with the ability to cause damage in the poultry industry, or even affect human health. Fresh wild bird faecal samples at a wild ducks’ roosts may contain a high concentration of IAV. A method developed by Zhou et al. in 2009 described the amplification of full IAV genome in a single tube, and this method has been successfully employed at the University of Pretoria (UP) in the subtyping of IAV in clinical samples (organs and tracheal swabs). However, when applied to environmental faecal samples the technique was unsuccessful, presumably due to PCR inhibitors and a high level of contaminating nucleic acids from bacteria. Therefore, the first objective of this study was to optimize the IAV pan-genome RT-PCR for environmental faecal samples. PCR parameters such as MgSO4 concentration, annealing temperatures, and different PCR reagents were optimized on spiked faecal samples. The second objective was to screen fresh environmental faecal samples from wild duck at a site in Pretoria to identify positive field samples for testing. A total of 2,144 faecal swabs were collected from January through-February 2021 and screened with IAV-specific real-time RT-PCR assay. Two samples with positive results were submitted to the Central Analytical Facility in Stellenbosch University for Ion Torrent Next-Generation Sequencing. After assembling the results in the CLC Genomics Workbench software and verifying the results by BLAST analysis, TP2118 was conclusively identified as an H9N2 strain, but whereas the presence of IAV-specific internal genes could be identified for TP2067, the sequence data was insufficient to identify the subtype. TP2118 represents the first H9N2 virus ever detected in wild ducks in Gauteng Province. Exotic leather cluster “healthy flocks-quality leather” grant Production Animal Studies MSc (Production Animal Studies) Unrestricted 2022-08-16T10:52:35Z 2022-08-16T10:52:35Z 2022-04 2021 Dissertation * A2022 https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/86800 en © 2021 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle UCTD
Influenza A virus
Wild bird
Bird faecal
Pan-genome
Faecal samples
Wild ducks
South Africa
Improving the identification of influenza : a virus from wild bird faecal samples in South Africa
title Improving the identification of influenza : a virus from wild bird faecal samples in South Africa
title_full Improving the identification of influenza : a virus from wild bird faecal samples in South Africa
title_fullStr Improving the identification of influenza : a virus from wild bird faecal samples in South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Improving the identification of influenza : a virus from wild bird faecal samples in South Africa
title_short Improving the identification of influenza : a virus from wild bird faecal samples in South Africa
title_sort improving the identification of influenza a virus from wild bird faecal samples in south africa
topic UCTD
Influenza A virus
Wild bird
Bird faecal
Pan-genome
Faecal samples
Wild ducks
South Africa
url https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/86800