An aggregated dataset of day 3 post-inoculation viral titer measurements from influenza A virus-infected ferret tissues

Data from influenza A virus (IAV) infected ferrets (Mustela putorius furo) provides invaluable information towards the study of novel and emerging viruses that pose a threat to human health. This gold standard animal model can recapitulate many clinical signs of infection present in IAV-infected humans, supports virus replication of human and zoonotic strains without prior adaptation, and permits evaluation of virus transmissibility by multiple modes. While ferrets have been employed in risk assessment settings for >20 years, results from this work are typically reported in discrete stand-alone publications, making aggregation of raw data from this work over time nearly impossible. Here, we describe a dataset of 333 ferrets inoculated with 107 unique IAV, conducted by a single research group (NCIRD/ID/IPB/Pathogenesis Laboratory Team) under a uniform experimental protocol. This collection of ferret tissue viral titer data on a per-individual ferret level represents a companion dataset to ‘An aggregated dataset of serially collected influenza A virus morbidity and titer measurements from virus-infected ferrets’. However, care must be taken when combining datasets at the level of individual animals (see PMID 40245007 for guidance in best practices for comparing datasets comprised of serially-collected and fixed-timepoint in vivo-generated data).

See publications using and describing data for more information:
Kieran TJ, Sun X, Tumpey TM, Maines TR, Belser JA. 202X. Spatial variation of infectious virus load in aggregated day 3 post-inoculation respiratory tract tissues from influenza A virus-infected ferrets. Under peer review. 

Kieran TJ, Sun X, Maines TR, Belser JA. 2025. Predictive models of influenza A virus lethal disease: insights from ferret respiratory tract and brain tissues. Scientific Reports, in press.

Bullock TA, Pappas C, Uyeki TM, Brock N, Kieran TJ, Olsen SJ, Davis CD, Tumpey TM, Maines TR, Belser JA. 2025. The (digestive) path less traveled: influenza A virus and the gastrointestinal tract. mBio, in press.

Kieran TJ, Sun X, Maines TR, Beauchemin CAA, Belser JA. 2024. Exploring associations between viral titer measurements and disease outcomes in ferrets inoculated with 125 contemporary influenza A viruses. J Virol98: e01661-23. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03256-6

Related dataset:
Kieran TJ, Sun X, Creager HM, Tumpey TM, Maine TR, Belser JA. 2025. An aggregated dataset of serial morbidity and titer measurements from influenza A virus-infected ferrets. Sci Data, 11(1):510. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03256-6

https://data.cdc.gov/National-Center-for-Immunization-and-Respiratory-D/An-aggregated-dataset-of-serially-collected-influe/cr56-k9wj/about_data

Other relevant publications for best practices on data handling and interpretation: 
Kieran TJ, Maines TR, Belser JA. 2025. Eleven quick tips to unlock the power of in vivo data science. PLoS Comput Biol, 21(4):e1012947. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012947

Kieran TJ, Maines TR, Belser JA. 2025. Data alchemy, from lab to insight: Transforming in vivo experiments into data science gold. PLoS Pathog, 20(8):e1012460. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1012460

Tags: animal-model, ferret, flu, in-vivo, influenza, ncird, ncird-id, necropsy, pathogenesis, risk-assessment, tissue, virus
Organization: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services