Available Technology

Influenza (flu) is a contagious respiratory illness caused by circulating influenza viruses, typically types A and B. The emergence of a new and very different influenza A virus capable of infecting humans may potentially cause an influenza pandemic. To monitor the risk to humans and identify potential sources of infection, CDC scientists have developed a novel method to identify influenza A subtypes in animal and environmental samples using cDNA (clone) hybridization and adapter-mediated amplification. This technology provides a unique strategy for target enrichment, detection, subtyping, real-time quantification, and genetic characterization. The samples are first enriched for influenza A virus through on-bead hybridization. The beads contain degenerative sequences that can bind to a variety of influenza A viruses including Newcastle disease (NCD), which is an influenza-like virus that may be present in Avian samples. The hybridization is performed with a special buffer that enables target enrichment. Thereafter, new influenza A virus subtypes can be detected using real-time PCR with a universal primer. There are no commercial kits currently available that detect the full spectrum of influenza A subtypes.