Table 3. Viral RNA in tissues of 5 vaccinated and 5 nonvaccinated falcons*.
| Falcon no.,vaccination route | RNA in tissue, ct value† |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CNS | Duodenum | Pancreas | Trachea | Lung | |
| Vaccinated | |||||
| 1, IM | 36.12‡ | >40.00 | 38.84‡ | >40.00 | >40.00 |
| 2, IM | 38.65‡ | >40.00 | >40.00 | >40.00 | >40.00 |
| 5, IM | 34.22‡ | 36.14‡ | >40.00 | 33.44‡§ | 36.94‡ |
| 8, SC | >40.00 | IH | >40.00 | 38.71‡ | 32.85‡§ |
| 9, SC | >40.00 | IH | IH | 29.01§ | IH |
| Nonvaccinated | |||||
| 11 | 18.22 | 25.84 | 19.70 | 19.09 | 20.75 |
| 12 | 23.79 | 23.37 | 14.67 | 19.07 | 18.95 |
| 13 | 12.85 | 26.22 | 20.13 | 19.82 | 16.95 |
| 14 | 11.52 | 21.66 | 17.14 | 16.70 | 15.55 |
| 15 | 14.13 | 16.31 | 19.91 | 14.61 | 18.04 |
*Viral RNA detected by real-time reverse transcription–PCR (RT-PCR) in vaccinated falcons euthanized 11 days postchallenge and in nonvaccinated falcons that died after challenge infection with 106.0 50% egg infectious doses of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus strain A/Cygnus cygnus/Germany/R65/06 (H5N1). Ct, cycle of threshold; CNS, central nervous system; IM, intramuscular; SC, subcutaneous; IH, inhibited (samples extracted twice with the QIAGEN [Hilden, Germany] Viral RNA kit or Trizol [Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA]). †Real-time RT-PCR results are presented as ct values. Ct values >40 are scored as negative. ‡Virus isolation attempted in embryonated chicken eggs. §Virus was isolated from individual tissue sample.