Projets soutenus

Influenza A viruses (IAVs) represent a major worldwide health threat. Wild aquaticbirds are the natural reservoir of IAVs, which also infect poultry and mammals. Pigs, oftenraised in intensive herds, can be infected by avian, swine and human viruses, posing a con-tinuous threat of human infection and emergence of animal-human hybrid viruses by geneticreassortment that episodically lead to pandemics. We have developed a droplet microfluidicsystem (μFlu) in which millions of microscopic droplets function as independent ‘test-tubes’that allow sequencing of unprecedented numbers of viruses to systematically analyse reas-sortment between IAVs. We will apply this system to (i) understand the rules underlyinggenetic reassortment and (ii) scrutinize reassortment in pigs, to identify strains that repre-sent a threat to human health and inform Animal and Public Health organisations ahead oftime.