◇ Confirmed the low pathogenicity through an experiment of H5N6 type AI virus infection using weasels
- Infectivity found to be low and infection through virus transmission between individuals rarely occurs.
- Consistent with the result of a genetic analysis predicting that the risk of human infection would be very low.
◇ A general characteristic of the influenza virus is that it continuously mutates. Therefore, through domestic and international cooperation, the risk of human infection will be continuously analyzed.

□ The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC, Director Jung Ki-Suck) and the Korea National Research Institute of Health (KNIH, Director General Park Do-joon) announced that the pathogenicity and spreading power, the indicators for the risk of human infection, of H5N6 type avian influenza (AI) virus isolated from domestic poultry was extremely low through an experiment artificially infecting weasels with the virus.

□ An animal experiment to directly infect weasels with H5N6 type AI virus at the Biosafety Level 3 Test Lab of NIH for the purpose of checking the "probability of human infection" of the virus produced the results below.

○ No distinct changes in body temperature or weight loss and typical respiratory symptoms, such as sneezing and rhinorrhea, were observed.

○ Since the virus infection in various organs, such as the lungs and bronchi, were shown to be very weak, the pathogenicity of H5N6 type AI virus pandemic in Korea was considered low in weasels.

□ In addition, to evaluate the risk of H5N6 type AI virus infection between people, infection spreadability of the virus was analyzed and, as a result, the spreading of the virus was found to not occur through the air (droplet infection) and also through direct contact between weasels.

□ Considering the results of animal infection experiments and genomic characteristic analysis thus far, the KCDC announced that the probability of infection of H5N6 and H5N8 type AI viruses, which are pandemic in Korea at the moment, and H7N9 type AI virus found in wild birds spreading from birds to humans is very low.

□ However, in China, human infection of H5N6 AI virus has been reported and, as for H7N9, it is pandemic for the fifth time since 2013. As such, patients who have been directly exposed to poultry and wild birds are continuing to be discovered.

○ Accordingly, the KCDC advises citizens to avoid visiting locations where contact with birds is likely, such as live poultry markets, traditional markets and habitats for migratory birds, when traveling to countries such as China where cases of human infections have been reported.