2025/09/30 by Xiangjie Sun, Jeeva Subbiah, Jessica A. Belser +9 · 1 voice
Medicine · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Influenza Virus Research Studies #Animal Disease Management and Epidemiology #Respiratory viral infections research
paper · doi:10.3201/eid3110.250668
openalex publication_date 2025/09/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
Highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) clade 2.3.4.4b viruses have infected >1,000 herds of dairy cattle and hundreds of poultry flocks in the United States since the beginning of 2024. Seventy human cases have been reported during that period, mainly through occupational exposure. Although prior influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus infection has been shown to confer protection against influenza A(H5N1) clade 2.3.4.4b virus infection in the ferret model, it remains unclear if influenza vaccines, known to elicit a less potent and narrower cross-reactive immune response, can achieve a similar effect. In this article, we demonstrate that immunization with commercially available human seasonal influenza vaccines also confers partial protection against disease caused by H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b virus in ferrets, which is partially associated with the presence of cross-reactive antibodies targeting H5N1 virus antigens.