Relationship between domestic and wild birds in live poultry market and a novel human H7N9 virus in China.

To trace the source of the avian H7N9 viruses, we collected 99 samples from 4 live poultry markets and the family farms of 3 patients in Hangzhou city of Zhejiang province, China. We found that almost all positive samples came from chickens and ducks in live poultry markets. These results strongly suggest that the live poultry markets are the major source of recent human infections with H7N9 in Hangzhou city, Zhejiang province of China. Therefore, control measures are needed, not only in the domestic bird population, but also in the live poultry markets to reduce human H7N9 infection risk.