Highly pathogenic H7N3 influenza A viruses have persisted in poultry in Mexico since 2012, diversifying into multiple lineages that have spread to three Mexican states, as of 2016. The H7N3 viruses segregate into three distinct clades that are geographically structured. All 2016 viruses are resistant to adamantane antiviral drugs and have an extended 24-nucleotide insertion at the HA cleavage site that was acquired from host 28S ribosomal RNA.
Keywords: BEAST; H7N3; H7N3 subtype; avian influenza virus; evolutionary dynamics; influenza in birds; phylogenetics.
Published 2020. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.