Efficient airborne transmission of influenza D virus in ferret models and serological evidence of human exposure in Northeast China

作者：Hongbo Gao, Weiyang Sun, Pengyang Lu, Zhipeng Dong, Jiajing Wu, Yuanguo Li, Wentao Wan, Yue Feng, Bingshuo Qian, Mingzhu Zhang, Yiman Wu, Chunling Dong, Beilei Shen, Tiecheng Wang, Xianzhu Xia, Jie Zhang, Wu‐Chun Cao, Yuwei Gao · 发表于：Emerging Microbes & Infections · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1080/22221751.2025.2564308 · 被引用次数：9 · 研究领域：Influenza Virus Research Studies、Respiratory viral infections research、Animal Disease Management and Epidemiology

Newly emerging influenza D virus (IDV), first identified in swine in 2011, has demonstrated broad mammalian tropism with notable prevalence in bovine populations and occupational exposure-associated seroprevalence among cattle workers. This zoonotic expansion raises concerns that IDV could acquire capability for human-to-human transmission via sustained evolving in mammal hosts. Here, we evaluated the infectivity and transmissibility of a currently circulating IDV strain, D/bovine/Jilin/HY11/2023 (abbreviated as D/HY11), isolated from cattle in Northeast China in 2023. D/HY11 was able to replicate efficiently in human primary respiratory epithelial cells and exhibits respiratory tract tropism in mammals. More importantly, we found that D/HY11 could efficiently transmit through the air between ferret models (5/6). Serological surveillance (2020-2024) revealed alarming exposure rates, with no significant difference in positivity between rural and urban populations: 73.37% (449/612) in the general population and an even higher rate of 96.67% (58/60) among individuals with respiratory symptoms. The extraordinary high IDV seropositivity among people in Northeast China highlights the possibility of silent spread in mammals with mild symptoms. Among generic anti-influenza drugs tested in vitro, only polymerase inhibitors demonstrated effective suppression of IDV replication. And the D/HY11 strain exhibited enhanced polymerase activity compared to the classical IDV strain, with preli...