Molecular analysis of the H9N2-subtype viruses that were in circulation in 1997 in Hong Kong suggest that H9N2 viruses have established a stable lineage in chickens [14, 31] . A single H9N2subtype virus, A/Quail/Hong Kong/G1/97 (G1), was most similar to the HP H5N1 subtype from the 1997 outbreak in 6 of the 8 gene segments, and this lineage still circulates today [14, 32] . Serological evidence suggests that the H9N2-subtype isolates from Bangladesh are less like the G1-like reference virus, but the high degree of reactivity to the remaining reference sera obfuscates serological classification. The H9N2-subtype viruses from the United Arab Emirates exhibited a similar pattern of HI assay titers. In the original analysis, the authors concluded that these viruses were antigenically similar to the A/Duck/Hong Kong/ Y280/97 (H9N2) virus (Y280 lineage), yet the results of phylogenetic characterization suggest that these viruses are genetically similar to the G1-like viruses [16] . Genetic characterization of the viruses from Bangladesh is in progress to examine the molecular evolution of the H9N2 subtypes in that country.