Thomas and Swayne, 2008 – Thermal Inactivation of High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza Virus in Dried Egg White

This study presents thermal inactivation data for the high pathogenicity avian influenza virus (HPAIV) strain A/chicken/PA/1370/83 (H5N2) (PA/83) in dried egg white with an average moisture content of 7.5%. The 95% upper confidence limits for D-values calculated from linear regression of the survival curves at 54.4, 60.0, 65.5, and 71.1ºC were 475.4, 192.2, 141.0, and 50.1 minutes, respectively. The line equation y = [( 0.05494)(ºC)] + 5.5693 (RMSE = 0.0711) was obtained by linear regression of experimental D-value versus temperature. Conservative predictions based on the thermal inactivation data suggest that standard industry pasteurization protocols would be very effective for PA/83 HPAIV inactivation. For example, these calculations predict that after approximately 2.6 days at 54.4ºC there is a 1:100 probability of 1 EID50/g PA/83 HPAIV remaining when the starting titer is 5-log EID50/g.