Genotype differentiation of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIV) of the goose/Guangdong lineage in Germany - Derivation and deployment of reference sequences

Highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIV) of the H5 goose/Guangdong (gs/GD) lineage have repeatedly emerged in Germany since 2006. Rooted in the respective gs/GD lineages, HPAIV in Germany have genetically diversified into a plethora of clades and subclades and evolved into an assortment of sub- and genotypes. This technical note summarizes the genotype differentiation procedure, lists the successfully assigned genotypes and supplies corresponding reference sequences.