Recent evolution of equine influenza and the origin of canine influenza

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Abstract
Significance: Equine influenza viruses of the H3N8 subtype have caused outbreaks of respiratory disease in horses throughout the world since their discovery in 1963 in Florida. In 2004 an equine virus in circulation was transmitted to dogs and subsequently spread throughout the United States and to Europe. Comparative analyses of the structures of hemagglutinin glycoproteins of equine and canine viruses by X-ray crystallography locate the sites of variation on the molecules, indicate a role in determining binding specificity for an amino acid sequence difference in the receptor binding site, and describe a unique structural difference in the membrane fusion region in recent equine and canine virus HAs by comparison with all other known HAs. These differences are proposed to have facilitated cross-species transfer.

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