June 3^rd, 2009

Garcia N.

Oral communication in 5ª Reunión Cientí­fica Anual de Investigación de las Zoonosis en Europa

Single-stranded RNA viruses, like Influenza virus, are considered the most widespread zoonotic emerging and reemerging pathogens. A possible explanation of this fact is the high nucleotide substitution rate of this type of viruses, which permit them a rapid adaptation to new environments and hosts, even crossing the species barrier. Nevertheless this high genetic variation is an important disadvantage not only for the treatment of the serious diseases that they can produce, but also for the diagnostic methods. Avian influenza (AI), caused by influenza virus type A, is a good example of this type of pathogens. One-step Reverse Real Time PCR (RRT-PCR) is the most widely used molecular method for AI virus detection, targeting the matrix protein gene (M-gene) that is considered well conserved among all these viruses