Description
While infection of chickens with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 subtypes often leads to complete mortality within 24 to 48 h, infection of ducks in contrast causes mild or no clinical signs. Rapid onsets of fatal disease in chickens, but with no evidence of severe clinical symptoms in ducks, suggest underlying differences in their innate immune mechanisms. To understand the molecular basis for such difference, chicken and duck primary lung cells, infected with a low-pathogenicity avian influenza (LPAI) and two HPAI H5N1 viruses, were subjected to RNA expression profiling using Affymetrix Chicken GeneChip arrays.