This work package addresses the stability of a variety of influenza A viruses under well defined conditions in the laboratory. First partners will agree on a reproducible protocol to determine influenza A virus stability. It is envisaged that virus survival is expressed in Dt values (time taken to reduce the virus infectivity titre by 90%) but this assumes that inactivation of virus infectiousness is linear. For all this will be checked in pilot experiments using virus in allantoic fluid.
The different partners will test different recent LPAI and HPAI H5, H7 and H9 virus isolates. Key isolates will be used for further studies on the effect of physical different parameters including pH, temperature and humidity (including desiccation) on virus stability. Moreover the stabilizing or destabilizing effects of faeces and different components in water are studied.