Antigenic shift

A sudden shift in the antigenicity of a virus resulting from the recombination of the genomes of two viral strains.

Antigenic shift is seen only with influenza A viruses.

It results usually from the replacement of the hemagglutinin (the viral attachment protein that also mediates the entry of the virus into the cell) with a novel subtype that has not been present in human influenzaviruses for a long time.

The source of these new genes is the large reservoir of influenzaviruses in waterfowl.

The consequences of the introduction of a new hemagglutinin into human viruses is usually a pandemic, or a worldwide epidemic