Fig. 6. Analyses of peak titers and total viral shedding for ferrets inoculated with wild-type or PB2 A271T A/mink (H5N1) virus.

A–D display peak viral titers and total viral shedding, respectively, for ferrets infected with either wild-type A/mink (H5N1) or A/mink (H5N1) with the PB2 A271T mutation. A, C show peak titers and total viral shedding, respectively, for ferrets infected at a dose of 10² TCID50 (n = 4/virus) in studies comparing viral shedding, weight loss, and survival (Fig. 4). B, D compared donor ferrets from both airborne transmission study 1 and 2 (combined n = 8) that were inoculated with wild-type A/mink (H5N1) to the donor ferrets for the transmission study with PB2 A271T A/mink (H5N1) (n = 4) virus. For all transmission studies, the inoculation dose in donors was 10⁶ TCID50. Total viral shedding was determined via area under the curve (AUC) analyses of viral titers in the nasal wash from days 1–7. Values shown are mean ± SE. Peak titers and AUC values for each virus were compared using a two-tailed unpaired Student’s t test with Welch’s correction. *p = 0.039. Blue and green represent wild-type and PB2 A271T A/mink (H5N1), respectively, at an inoculation of 10², while red and purple represent the same viruses, respectively, at an inoculation dose of 10⁶. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.