Novel bird flu kills two in Chinascientists and public-health officials worldwide are on alert after China announced on 31 march that two people had died
and a third was seriously ill from being infected with a new avian influenza virus, H7n9, that has never been seen before in humans.
Emerging preliminary analyses of the genome of the virus point to the possible spectre of a pathogen that might spread silently in poultry without causing serious disease.
regular human infections might then occur providing opportunities for the virus to adapt better to humans,
potentially sparking a pandemic. Scientists stress that it is much too early to do a full risk assessment of the potential pandemic threat.
But the initial analysis of viral sequences is"worrisome because they show several features that are suggestive of adaptation to humans,
says Masato Tashiro, a virologist at the Influenza Virus Research center in Tokyo, the World health organization (WHO) influenza reference
and research centre in Japan. The epidemiological picture is troubling too says Malik Peiris, a flu virologist at the University of Hong kong.
Any time an animal influenza virus crosses to humans it is a cause for concern,
and with three severe cases of disease over a short period of time, we certainly have to take it seriously,
A 27-year-old man in the same city fell ill on 27 february and died on 10 march.
A 35-year-old woman in Chuzhou City in Anhui province, some 350 kilometres west of Shanghai, fell ill on 9 march and remains seriously ill.
All three developed flu-like symptoms before developing severe pneumonia. The cases were announced on 31 march by China's health ministry, the National Health and Family planning Commission,
or tested positive for the virus. Some uncertainty hangs over whether family members related to the first patient who were hospitalized with severe pneumonia just before their elderly father might have passed on the virus to the housebound man
Chinese researchers have moved swiftly to decipher the new virus. THE WHO Chinese National Influenza Center in Beijing has sequenced isolates from each of the three cases,
and published them on the GISAID flu sequence database on 31 march. Researchers around the world have
Flu viruses have eight genes: two that encode the haemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N) proteins that stud the surface of the virus,
because this protein allows the virus to bind to host cells seems to belong to a Eurasian group of H7 avian flu viruses.
This is in contrast to the 2009 H1n1 pandemic virus, which was a mix of viruses that infect birds, pigs and humans.
Most of the genetic analyses are still being carried out confidentially within THE WHO's global flu-research networks.
A striking feature of the novel virus is that its H protein is structurally similar to that of viruses that don t cause severe sickness in birds,
Flu viruses that don t sicken birds can, however, cause severe disease in humans simply because we lack any immunity to them.
and thus could create a reservoir of infection that would lead to frequent sporadic human infections that crop up without warning.
China has reported not any recent H7 flu infections in birds, perhaps because such infections would not show up as serious disease,
or maybe because of shortcomings in surveillance or reporting. A key requirement now, Peiris says, is to track down which birds
Flu experts say that other urgent requirements include testing any human cases of serious pneumonia for traces of the virus
These findings, published online today in Nature1, could help scientists to design insect repellents to combat malaria, dengue and agricultural pests.
Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that carries dengue and yellow fever, and Anopheles gambiae, which hosts the malaria parasites,
Pathogen genome tracks Irish potato famine back to its rootsthe great potato famine of the 1840s was a defining event in Ireland s recent history.
It is the first ancient plant pathogen to have decoded its genome. In 2011, scientists reported the sequence of the plague-causing bacteria responsible for the Black death of the 1340s.
Phytophthora infestans, which causes potato late blight, is an oomycete a type of single-celled organism related to brown algae.
Ireland s dependence on potatoes was the reason the epidemic exacted a far greater toll there than it did on the rest of the continent.
"What happened was that this pathogen had seen never cultivated potatoes before, says Bill Fry, a plant pathologist at Cornell University in Ithaca,
Polio in Somalia Somalia has recorded its first case of wild poliovirus since March 2007 the World health organization said on 11 Â May.
A 32-month-old girl living near Mogadishu has been paralysed by the virus. There have been no polio immunizations in some parts of the country since 2009.
with scientific discussions including threats from the avian influenza viruses H7n9 and H5n1. gm. asm. org21-23 may The Pasteur institute in Paris hosts an international symposium on HIV research,
marking 30 Â years since the first reports of a retrovirus associated with AIDS. www. 30yearshiv. org
Pear-shaped nucleus boosts search for new physicsa lopsided atomic nucleus may help to refine nuclear theory.
They screened for four common canine pathogens in foxes captured on Mednyi Island and in the pelts of museum specimens of Commander Island foxes.
which causes the disease toxoplasmosis, but that alone did not account for the population crash. So the researchers looked at the foxes diet.
But Dominique Berteaux, an Arctic ecologist at the University of Quebec in Rimouski, Canada, cautions that the team has not definitively proved a link between mercury contamination
Studies show that the types of omega-3 fatty acids found in oily fish help to protect against heart disease, arthritis, Alzheimer s disease and even depression.
Wellcome head Jeremy Farrar, an expert in infectious diseases, is the next director of the Wellcome Trust,
because they fear contamination of the wild stock and worry that it could drive down the price of farmed salmon.
They classified streams according to three different levels of pesticide contamination: uncontaminated, slightly contaminated and highly contaminated.
Skeletons show rickets struck the Medici familyas the wealthy rulers of Tuscany and patrons of Leonardo Da vinci and Galileo,
A study1 of the skeletons of nine Medici children born in the sixteenth century shows that they had rickets,
Rickets is associated usually with poverty and living in heavily polluted close-built cities where there is little exposure to sunlight.
De Agostini Picture Library/AKGLACK of sun exposure may have contributed to the rickets suffered in early childhood by Medici heir don Filippino,
An examination of the bones, both visually and by X-ray, showed that six of the nine children bore convincing signs of rickets,
The study pinpoints rickets as a cause of his condition. Rickets is prevented easily by eating foods such as eggs and cheese,
and by spending short amounts of time exposed to sunlight, which triggers Vitamin d production. To understand why the Medici children had this avoidable illness,
the researchers analysed the nitrogen isotopes found in bone collagen, which reflect the main source of protein in the diet.
Even two Medici newborns showed signs of rickets, although they should have received all the Vitamin d they needed before birth from their mothers.
as pilot culls to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis begin. As protesters descended on the nation s capital last week, the chief scientific adviser of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural affairs (Defra),
My basic message to the meeting was we ve basically lost control of tuberculosis (TB) in the countryside.
Defraian Boydthe problem is tuberculosis not badgers. Badgers happen to be in the middle of this, and unfortunately the methods for dealing with that problem mean we need to reduce the densities of badgers.
and showed the effect that sustained removal of badgers can have on reducing bovine tuberculosis in cattle.
I think that we can eradicate tuberculosis, but it all depends to some extent on resources but, more than that, on the determination of people generally.
a common cause of blindness. Final approval by Takahashi s institution is expected soon, and she plans to start recruiting patients as early as September.
Deadly pig virus slips through US bordersthe pathogen, a type of coronavirus called porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus (PEDV),
and it caused mass epidemics in Europe in the 1970s and 1980s. As pigs there developed immunity, the virus petered out and now causes only occasional, isolated outbreaks.
and could become an epidemic (see Pig virus on the wing). SOURCE: US Department of agriculture"It s a real threat, says Lisa  Becton, a veterinary surgeon and director of swine health information at the National Pork Board, an industry group in Des Â
because the pathogen thrives in the specific conditions found in pig guts. Researchers in Europe and Asia have managed already to infect cells,
Li Bocordgrass has been spreading there"like a cancer, says reserve director Tang Chendong, so far consuming more than 10%of the wetland.
Losing a single pollinator species harms plantsremoving even a single bee species from an ecosystem has serious effects on plant reproduction,
The plan includes $84 Â million in new funds for Alzheimer s disease research at the NIH s National Institute on Aging.
the company has sued two competitors for infringing different patents on tests for the cancer-related genes BRCA1 and BRCA2.
) Alzheimer s retest Eli lilly, a pharmaceutical company based in Indianapolis, Indiana, announced on 12 Â July that it will focus on patients with mild Alzheimer s disease in a forthcoming clinical trial of the drug solanezumab.
The antibody-based drug, which targets the amyloid-Ã Â protein, will be tested in a large-scale phase III trial.
which pooled data from patients with mild and moderate forms of Alzheimer s. But secondary analysis hinted that the drug might help patients with mild forms of the disease.
Research restart Research on the rinderpest virus is set to resume after being off limits since 2011,
Hua Jun Zhao, from China, had been under investigation for allegedly stealing patented cancer-research material,
biofilms and zoonotic pathogens is on the agenda at the 5th Congress of European Microbiologists in Leipzig,
and with the contamination proving to be isolated an event, imports into South korea have resumed. But as an army of combines marches across the wheat fields of eastern Oregon, the mystery of the transgenic intruders is fresh in the minds of investigators at the US Department of agriculture (USDA),
Now, the USDA investigators are sifting through hundreds of markers to try to match the genetic signature of the contaminant Oregon wheat with one of the varieties from the 256 field tests registered with the USDA.
Monsanto has made already clear its favoured explanation for the contamination: sabotage.""There are folks who don t like biotechnology
Fraley argues that the distribution of the contaminant plants suggests that a human hand cast them there.
If, for example, the contaminant was a spring wheat plant in a winter wheat field, the transgenic wheat would flower
Rinderpest research restartsresearch is set to resume on the rinderpest virus, the cause of a deadly cattle disease that was declared eradicated in 2011
In its heyday, the disease the only one other than smallpox to be eradicated from nature killed hundreds of millions of cattle, mainly in Europe, Asia and Africa
and goats might also protect cattle against rinderpest. Led by Michael Baron, a rinderpest researcher at the Pirbright Institute in Pirbright, UK, the project,
if successful, would eliminate the need to retain stocks of live-attenuated rinderpest vaccine. That would contribute to the goal of reducing the number of labs worldwide holding rinderpest material,
thus decreasing the risk of reintroduction. Some 55 labs in 35 countries still hold some kind of rinderpest virus,
according to a 2011 survey published in January 2013 in the journal Emerging Infectious diseases: 37%of them in Asia, 29%in Africa and 26%in Europe (G. Fourniã et al.
Emerging Infect. Dis. http://doi. org/m7w; 2013). ) The identities of the labs remain confidential.
The most dangerous stocks are of live field strains of virus, estimated to be kept in at least 16 labs in 14 countries,
so that they can be deployed within hours of any confirmed recurrence of rinderpest. No siting decisions have been made,
if Baron proves that PPR vaccines can protect cattle against rinderpest, it would provide an elegant way around such political issues:
there would no longer be need any to hold onto rinderpest vaccines. Baron says that he hopes to start the vaccine-challenge trials next spring
diagnostics and perhaps disease pathology, says Lubroth. He stresses, however, that the advisory committee will not be prescriptive
Flu vaccine backfires in pigspreventing seasonal sniffles may be complicated more than researchers suspected. A vaccine that protects piglets from one common influenza virus also makes them more vulnerable to a rarer flu strain,
researchers report today in Science Translational Medicine1. The team gave piglets a vaccine against H1n2 influenza.
The animals responded by making antibodies that blocked that virus but aided infection with the swine flu H1n1,
which caused a pandemic among humans in 2009. In the study, H1n1 infected more cells
and caused more severe pneumonia in vaccinated piglets than unvaccinated ones. The root of the different immune responses lies with the mushroom-shaped haemagglutinin protein found on the outside of influenza-virus particles
which helps them to attach onto cells in the airways. The protein occurs in all types of flu,
but the make-up of its cap and stem vary between strains. In the study, a vaccine for H1n2 spurred pigs to produce antibodies that bound the cap and the stem of that virus s haemagglutinin.
But some of those antibodies also targeted the stem of H1n1 s haemagglutinin protein, helping that virus fuse to cell membranes.
Much of the work to develop a universal flu vaccine has targeted the stems of haemagglutinin proteins
because they are relatively consistent across many types of influenza viruses. The new study suggests that such vaccines could also produce antibodies that enhance the ability of some viruses to infect new hosts,
But that does not mean that researchers should stop developing novel flu vaccines, including those that target haemagglutinin stems,
Gary Nabel, a flu-vaccine researcher and chief scientific officer at the biotechnology firm Sanofi in Cambridge, Massachusetts, agrees."
Still, researchers have not yet tested whether human influenza vaccines can produce the same effect. And differences between pigs and humans make it difficult to interpret how relevant the findings are to the development of human vaccines,
Emergence of H7n9 avian flu hints at broader threatthe H7n9 influenza virus did not emerge alone.
Researchers have traced the evolution of the deadly avian flu currently spreading in China, and have found evidence that it developed in parallel with a similar bird flu, H7n7,
which can infect mammals1. Although there is no evidence that this H7n7 strain will infect humans,
a co-author of the study and an influenza specialist at St jude Children s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
says lead author Yi Guan, an influenza specialist at the University of Hong kong. In China, the virus has infected 135 people
This is a very different influenza ecosystem from other countries says Guan. Guan's team sampled wild birds and poultry markets around Shanghai in April,
About 10%of samples tested positive for an influenza virus; of those, 15%were an H7 virus
and compared them to other bird-flu strains, they found H7n9 and H7n7 to be hybrids of wild Eurasian waterfowl strains, such as H7n3 and H11n9.
David Morens, an influenza researcher and senior adviser at the US National institutes of health in Bethesda, Maryland, says that the evolutionary pathway that the viruses followed suggests that more surveillance
Coronavirus clues Scientists have an early lead in the search for animal sources of the Middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-Cov),
all showed evidence of previous infection with MERS-Cov or a closely related virus (C.  B.  E.  M.  Reusken et  al.
whether camels could be a source of human infections. Stormy Atlantic The current Atlantic hurricane season,
and helps to mitigate vitamin  A deficiency which causes malnutrition and affects 1. 7 million children in the Philippines.
H7n9 virus persists China reported on 11 august its first new case of the H7n9 avian influenza virus in three weeks:
which is used to treat motor disorders such as Parkinson s disease, and is being tested for some psychiatric conditions.
On 7 Â August, the device maker Medtronic in Minneapolis, Minnesota announced the start of clinical trials for the system, with the first implantation in a person with Parkinson s in Germany.
Myriad, a medical diagnostics company in Salt lake city, Utah, sued Ambry in July for infringing patents that Myriad holds on tests for cancer-associated mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.
Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe diarrhea in young children and infants, killing more than 520,000 people each year,
when rotavirus infection is most likely to prove fatal. The research team found that Mucorice-ARP1 is most effective
and can reach areas of the pathogen which otherwise might not be reached by other antibodies
The PAR hypothesis could offer one explanation for the high rate of metabolic diseases such as high blood pressure,
obesity and diabetes among people who experience food scarcity early in life. It proposes that
which was marked by high death rates from diseases such as smallpox, typhus and whooping cough. They investigated how crop yields around the time of birth affected people's survival and reproductive success during the famine.
Because the main cause of death during the Finnish famine was infectious disease, which the PAR hypothesis does not address,
would be whether poor early-life nutrition protected the Finnish populations against later starvation or malnutrition.
The NIH last week also announced some $45 Â million in awards to study early interventions for Alzheimer s disease.
) Cancer cash On 21 september, philanthropists Phil and Penny Knight announced that they would donate US$500 million to cancer research at Oregon Health
The money would support science at the university s Knight Cancer Institute, to which the couple gave a $100-million donation in 2008.
Worldwide, malnutrition accounts for about 45%of deaths of children under five years old. 27 september In Stockholm, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releases a summary of its fifth assessment of the basic scientific evidence for climate change.
But although the devices are smoke-free, nicotine itself causes high blood pressure and palpitations, and is highly addictive.
"That s the biggest hope we have of ending the tobacco epidemic. But as big tobacco companies have piled into a market worth more than US$2 billion worldwide,
only if they are marketed as quitting aids. The United kingdom has said it will regulate them as medicines meaning they will have to meet strict quality standards but its regulator
Pig-manure fertilizer linked to human MRSA infections  People living near pig farms or agricultural fields fertilized with pig manure are more likely to become infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria,
whether the spreading of MRSA through livestock puts the public at risk of infection. The study examined the incidence of infections in Pennsylvania,
where manure from pig farms is often spread on crop fields to comply with state regulations for manure disposal.
The two categories refer to where patients acquire the infection as well as the bacteria s genetic lineages,
whether the MRSA strains carried in pig manure are the same as the MRSA strains found in nearby human infections.
Food-borne illnesses are not always home-grownscottish cows have a bum rap. For decades, the local cattle have been prime suspects behind the country s outbreaks of drug-resistant,
food-borne illnesses. But research now suggests that humans and imported foods are the real culprits.
A team of researchers compared the genome sequences of nearly 400 samples of diarrhoea-causing Salmonella enterica collected from people and livestock in Scotland.
The results suggest that mass epidemics may spark from a complicated intermingling of bacteria between animals and humans and from exchanges between different countries
"There is a pervading wisdom that local animals are a predominant source of pathogens and resistance, says study co-author Stuart Reid, a veterinary epidemiologist at the Royal Veterinary College in Hatfield, UK.
when global epidemics of drug-resistant salmonella infections began to arise. Livestock was assumed to be the source of the epidemics
because animals naturally harbour the bacteria. To find out whether this was really the case, the team used whole-genome sequencing to trace the tiny evolutionary steps of the collected bacterial strains.
Though local animals were not a main source of these pathogens he explains that it does not eliminate the possibility that resistance genes from local farms
Mark Woolhouse, an epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK, says that the study clarifies how pathogens and drug-resistance genes spread."
whether imported food is a source of new pathogens. Both Woolhouse and the authors call for Scotland
because the epidemics were international. He notes however, that, to eliminate the possibility of a domestically derived outbreak,
"Meat sale and meat trade across borders is making it harder to control antibiotic-resistant pathogens at a local scale
which cause plant diseases. Several highly virulent strains of fungi have emerged in recent years around the world,
His reward for this dedication was several bouts of malaria, one rather disgusting skin disease that his doctors linked to baboon faecal matter,
and a fresh perspective on Africa's wild animals. This photo, entitled'Essence of Elephants',was the winner of the exhibition's Animal Portraits award.
Study linking GM maize to rat tumours is retractedbowing to scientists'near-universal scorn, the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology today fulfilled its threat to retract a controversial paper claiming that a genetically modified (GM) maize causes serious disease in rats,
The known high incidence of tumours in the Sprague-Dawley strain of rat cannot be excluded as the cause of the higher mortality
The study found that rats fed for two years with Monsanto s glyphosate-resistant NK603 maize (corn) developed many more tumours
It also found that the rats developed tumours when glyphosate (Roundup), the herbicide used with GM maize,
Brain implant Patients with epilepsy who fail to respond to medications could benefit from a newly approved brain implant.
which epileptic seizures are thought to originate. Malaria strategy Researchers should aim to develop malaria vaccines by 2030 that can reduce the disease by 75,
%the World health organization said on 14 Â November in its updated Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap. The original 2006 roadmap had called for a malaria vaccine with an efficacy of 50%against severe disease
and death a target that seems unlikely to be met (see Nature 502, 271-272; 2013).
) To accelerate progress, the revised plan recommends rapid assessment of new candidate vaccines using controlled studies in humans.
and the American College of Cardiology, advocate treating patients on the basis of their risk of cardiovascular disease,
and Drug Administration (FDA) approved on 13 Â November a breakthrough therapy to treat a rare blood cancer called mantle-cell lymphoma.
cut back influenza monitoring and resulted in the loss of observing time at major telescope facilities.
which causes pine-wilt disease, has killed more than 50 million trees and resulted in economic losses of US$22 billion since 1982.
is to identify all fungal species that are involved in facilitating pine-wilt disease.""It s unlikely that one single species is to blame,
and reclaimed by nature, causing a headache for today s policy-makers. Should it be replanted to feed hungry mouths,
The pathogen, which was limited until now to parts of Asia and a region of Australia, has a particularly devastating effect on the popular Cavendish cultivar,
which produces pathogen-free plantlets. Source: FAOTO slow the spread, good farm hygiene, and prompt quarantine and destruction of infected plants are crucial.
Mogens Nicolaisen, who works with plant pathogens at Aarhus University in Denmark, thinks that endophytes could be a good way to help introduce resistance to both drought
and disease, including pathogens such as wheat rust, an area that Rodriguez says he is pursuing. But
Help for headaches Britain s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has approved the treatment of migraine headaches with a magnetism-based procedure applied through the scalp.
Guidelines issued on 22 Â January said that transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) could be used to reduce headache severity or frequency.
regulators in the United states approved the country s first commercial TMS device to relieve migraine pain.
The Yutu (Jade Rabbit) rover experienced a"mechanical control abnormality as it prepared to hibernate over its second lunar night (roughly equivalent to 14 days On earth)
Pig virus spreads Canada confirmed its first case of porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus on 23 Â January.
which causes diarrhoea and vomiting in pigs, was detected on a farm in Middlesex County, Ontario.
It caused mass epidemics in Europe in the 1970s and 1980s. Last spring, the United states reported its first case (see Nature 499,388;
3 february The World health organization releases its Third world Cancer Report, six years after its previous publication. The latest report will include updated trends in cancer incidence,
prevalence and mortality. go. nature. com/x39hvk
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