Fig. 2: Clinical course and viral shedding after o.n. HPAIV H5N1 infection with genotypes of high and moderate duckling virulence.

Depicted are individual daily clinical scores after i.m (IMPI) and o.n. inoculation with genotypes #4:3 and #8 respectively. Two different sentinel animals in each of the o.n. inoculated groups are individually marked by orange and red dots, respectively. A Clinical disease was observed up to 10 dpi and to better compare both types of infection clinical scores (numbering in the top right corner of each graph) were determined after ten days. In the stacked format of the graph white and black dots are used only to contrast different individual inoculated ducks. B Viral shedding was tested by pharyngeal - (grey boxes) and cloacal swabs (transparent boxes) by RT-qPCR and results are standardized to virus equivalents (VE/ml) as described in material and methods. Viral shedding from two sentinel animals per group is given individually by orange and red dots for pharyngeal shedding as well as squares for cloacal shedding. Please see Supplementary Table 6 for further information on statistical analysis. The dotted horizontal line represents the cut-off. C Likewise, organ samples from o.n. inoculated ducklings of both groups were investigated, taken either at the time of euthanasia or at the end of the observation time. Again, sentinel animals are indicated by an orange and a red dot.