Molecular Epidemiology, Evolution, and Transmission of Avian Influenza Viruses: 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Avian influenza viruses, with the panzootic events of the highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIs) (2000–2004), have become one of the most critical challenges for domestic poultry and wildlife conservation in terms of affected geographic areas and the number of infected species. The current panzootic is very special because of the high detection levels of HAPIVs in wild birds and even healthy animals; high mortality and economic loss in the poultry industry; the transmission of viruses to marine mammals, such as harbor seals, elephant seals, and sea lions, causing high mortality among them; the transmission of these viruses to seabirds especially gull species in Asia and Europe, causing several high-mortality outbreaks; their potential risks for biodiversity and sporadic infections in mammalian species such as lions, raccoons, skunks, foxes, and humans; the continuous evolution of the avian influenza viruses with high potential to change the preferential binding of the viruses from avian‐like receptors to mammalian-like receptors, increasing their zoonotic potential; change in the dynamics of HPAIVs to increase their range of hosts and pathogenicity; and their capacity to evolve as human pandemic pathogens.

Unfortunately, scientific publications about the current panzootic and the infectious HAPIVs are quite scattered; therefore, the Editors of this Special Issue invite all scientists, influenza experts, epidemiologists, and outbreak investigators to submit their manuscripts regarding molecular epidemiology, phylogeny, evolution, receptor binding affinity and antigenic cartography, intra- and cross-species transmission, and reports of outbreaks of avian influenza viruses with special emphasis on recent outbreaks and the current HPAI panzootic.

Dr. Sasan Fereidouni
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Viruses is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.