Sero-prevalence of avian influenza in animals and human in Egypt.

In opposite to most countries, avian influenza virus H5N1 became endemic in Egypt. Since, its first emerge in 2006 in Egypt, the virus could infect different species of birds and animals and even human. Beside the great economic losses to the local poultry industry in Egypt, the virus infected 166 confirmed human cases, 59 cases ended fatally. In the present study, the persistence of the avian influenza in the Egyptian environment was studied. For this purpose, serum samples were collected from human, cattle, buffaloes, sheep, goat, horses, donkeys, swine, sewage rats, stray dogs and stray cats. The sera were collected from Cairo and the surrounding governorates to be examined for the presence of anti-H5N1 antibodies by Haemagglutination Inhibition Test (HI) and ELISA test. Clear differences in the seroprevalence were noticed among different species and also between the results obtained by both techniques indicating the difference in test accuracy. The present data indicate wide spread of the H5N1 virus in the Egyptian environment.