NIV’s unceasing refusal to share vital data before publication

According tothe World Organisation for Animal Health, as of February 20, 2025, H5N1 has been present in 99 cats and has killed 18 cats. File (Image used for illustration goal solely)
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A two-year-old woman from Narasaraopeta in Palnadu district, Andhra Pradesh, who was contaminated with H5N1 died on March 16, 2025; she was admitted to AIIMS-Mangalagiri on March 4. ICMR’s Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (VRDL) recognized the virus as influenza A on March 7. On ICMR’s path, samples have been despatched to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune for Influenza A virus subtyping. NIV recognized the virus as N5N1, and ICMR alerted the State authorities on March 31 this 12 months.

Even three weeks after NIV subtyped the virus as H5N1, there is no such thing as a details about which clade the H5N1 virus belongs to. Determining the clade via phylogenetic evaluation is an easy and automatic process, and therefore could be executed instantly after genome sequencing.

NIV researchers’ reluctance to share vital info or shortly deposit the genome sequence data in public databases is nothing new. Be it Zika, Nipah or monkeypox virus, the genome sequence data from NIV turn into out there solely when a paper in regards to the virus is printed in a scientific journal a 12 months or two later; NIV posted two preprints of the monkeypox research outcomes. Even in the course of the pandemic, the genome sequence data of the primary two SARS-CoV-2 instances detected in Kerala have been posted by NIV in a public database — GISAID — a day after a information merchandise flagging the difficulty was printed on March 4, 2020 in The Hindu.

NIV researchers prioritising paper publication over free and rapid entry to genome sequence data and different vital info was as soon as once more seen within the case of an 11-year-old youngster contaminated with H5N1 in 2021. On July 15, 2021, NIV researchers decided that the kid from Gurugram, NCR area admitted in AIIMS Delhi on June 12, 2021 was contaminated with H5N1. The youngster died on July 12, 2021. While it isn’t recognized when the genome was sequenced and phylogenetic evaluation was carried out, NIV researchers had submitted the genome sequence in GenBank in October 2021. But the sequence data was made publicly accessible solely after eight months on June 2, 2022 when NIV researchers printed the leads to a journal. That the kid was contaminated with H5N1 clade 2.3.2.1a was recognized solely when the paper was printed.

In distinction, a 2.5-year-old woman who returned to Melbourne after visiting Kolkata between February 12 and February 29, 2024 and hospitalised on March 2, 2024 days after her return from India was discovered to be contaminated with H5N1 clade 2.3.2.1a. The state Victorian Department of Health confirmed the case on May 18, 2024. Four days in a while May 22, full details about the case, together with the clade particulars, was shared with the WHO months before the outcomes have been printed in January 2025. Most importantly, the genome sequence data was posted on GISAID, which is a public database, on May 22, 2024, the identical day the WHO was knowledgeable.

Focus on clade 2.3.2.1a

There is a cause why it has turn into essential to know if the H5N1 virus discovered within the youngster in Palnadu district, Andhra Pradesh belongs to clade 2.3.2.1a. The clade 2.3.2.1a has abruptly gained extra consideration. The National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases in Bhopal recognized reassortant H5N1 clade 2.3.2.1a virus in three home cat samples collected on January 16 and January 24 this 12 months from Chhindwara metropolis in Madhya Pradesh. In stark distinction to NIV, NIHSAD researchers have shortly shared the main points in regards to the clade and the reassortant nature of the virus in a preprint posted on February 23, 2025.

Phylogenetic evaluation indicated that the N5N1 virus from three cat samples are reassortant viruses. According to the preprint, “four gene segments were closely related to H5N1 clade 2.3.2.1a viruses circulating in Bangladesh, while the remaining four segments clustered with clade 2.3.4.4b viruses”. While the matrix phase clustered with H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b virus detected in a wild fowl in South Korea, the polymerase gene complicated grouped with H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b viruses detected in poultry and wild birds in Asia since 2022.

“Although cat viruses lacked classic mammalian adaptation markers they carried mutations associated with enhanced polymerase activity in mammalian cells and increased affinity for alpha 2-6 sialic acid receptors suggesting their potential role in facilitating infection in cats,” they write. “The identification of reassortant H5N1 clade 2.3.2.1a viruses in domestic cats in India highlights the urgent need for enhanced surveillance in domestic poultry, wild birds, and mammals, including humans, to track genomic diversity and molecular evolution of circulating strains.”

According to the World Organisation for Animal Health, as of February 20, 2025, H5N1 has been present in 99 cats and has killed 18 cats. “Since H5N1 has been found in domestic cats, there is increased risk of the virus spreading to humans due to increased chances of exposure,” a researcher tells The Hindu. “Any mammalian spillover, which are cats in this case, and continued infection has a possibility to adapt to mammalian transmission (as in the case of cattle in the U.S.) and then eventually to humans by exposure.”