Emergence of an Eurasian avian-like swine influenza A (H1N1) virus from mink in China

We evaluated the phenotype and genotype of a fatal influenza/canine distemper virus coinfection found in farmed mink in China. We identified a novel subtype H1N1 influenza virus strain from the lungs of infected mink designated A/Mink/Shandong/1121/2017 (H1N1). The results of phylogenetic analysis of 8 gene fragments of the H1N1 strain showed the virus was a swine origin triple-reassortant H1N1 influenza virus: with the 2009 pandemic H1N1 segments (PB2, PB1, PA, NP and M), Eurasian avian-like H1N1 swine segments (HA and NA) and classical swine (NS) lineages. The EID50/0.2 mL of this strain was 10(-6.2) and pathogenicity tests were 100 % lethal in a mouse model of infection. We found that while not lethal and lacking any overt signs of infection in mink, the virus could proliferate in the upper respiratory tracts and the animals were converted to seropositive for the HA protein.