which could help halt infectious diseases such as bird flu swine flu and SARS before they take hold. Focusing on the avian flu virus strain H5n1 research published today in the journal PLOS ONE identifies key stages in the poultry trade chain which lead to its transmission to other birds animals and humans.
High risk times for the disease to spread include during transportation slaughter preparation and consumption.
The H5n1 avian flu strain has been responsible for the deaths of millions of poultry as well as 375 confirmed human deaths.
and mammals such as SARS and bird flu represent 60 per cent of outbreaks. As well as representing a significant global health threat they also create a burden to public health systems and the global economy.
#First probable person to person transmission of new bird flu virus in China; But H7n9 is not able to spread efficiently between humansthe first report of probable person to person transmission of the new avian influenza A (H7n9) virus in Eastern China has just been published.
The findings provide the strongest evidence yet of H7n9 transmission between humans but the authors stress that its ability to transmit itself is limited and non-sustainable.
Avian influenza A (H7n9) virus was identified recently in Eastern China. As of 30 june 2013 133 cases have been reported resulting in 43 deaths.
and tested for influenza virus. Of these one (a son in law who helped care for the father) had mild illness but all contacts tested negative for H7n9 infection.
whether the novel avian influenza virus possesses the capability to transmit person-to-person. She concludes that the infection of the daughter is likely to have resulted from her father during unprotected exposure
#H7n9 influenza: History of similar viruses gives cause for concernthe H7n9 avian flu strain that emerged in China earlier this year has subsided for now
but it would be a mistake to be reassured by this apparent lull in infections. The virus has several highly unusual traits that paint a disquieting picture of a pathogen that may yet lead to a pandemic according to lead scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases.
and point out that H7 influenza has a tendency to become established in bird horse and swine populations and may spillover repeatedly into humans.
Although this previously unrecognized strain of avian influenza A has now been associated with 132 confirmed human infections and 39 related deaths (as of June 14) the rate at
H7n9 also shares many characteristics with another influenza strain that continues to spillover into humans:
highly pathogenic avian influenza H5n1. Among other commonalities both viruses have a clinical picture that includes bilateral pneumonia acute respiratory distress syndrome
The possibility that H7n9 might infect pigs is particularly troubling as swine are considered a mixing vessel for viruses--a breeding ground for novel viral reassortants like the 2009 H1n1 pandemic influenza strain commonly known as swine flu.
Although avian influenza viruses have not caused widespread human transmission in 94 years of surveillance there have been numerous instances of avian influenza spillover
All the unknowns surrounding the virus make a strong case for enhancing basic and applied research into the evolution of influenza viruses and for better integration of influenza virology within human and veterinary public health efforts.
We have a unique opportunity to learn more of influenza's many secrets and thereby enhance our ability to prevent
#Ferrets, pigs susceptible to H7n9 avian influenza viruschinese and U s. scientists have used virus isolated from a person who died from H7n9 avian influenza infection to determine
whether the virus could infect and be transmitted between ferrets. Ferrets are used often as a mammalian model in influenza research
and efficient transmission of influenza virus between ferrets can provide clues as to how well the same process might occur in people.
The researchers dropped H7n9 virus into the noses of six ferrets. A day later three uninfected ferrets were placed inside cages with the infected animals
The potential public health implication of this observation is that a person infected by H7n9 avian influenza virus who does not show symptoms could
The researchers also infected pigs with the human-derived H7n9 virus. In natural settings pigs can act as a virtual mixing bowl to combine avian-and mammalian-specific influenza strains potentially allowing avian strains to better adapt to humans.
#Bird flu in live poultry markets are the source of viruses causing human infectionson 31 march 2013 the Chinese National Health and Family planning Commission announced human cases of novel
H7n9 influenza virus infections. A group of scientists led by Professor Chen Hualan of the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has investigated the origins of this novel H7n9 influenza virus
and published their results in Springer's open access journal Chinese Science Bulletin (Springeropen). Following analysis of H7n9 influenza viruses collected from live poultry markets it was found that these viruses circulating among birds were responsible for human infections.
These results provide a basis for the government to take actions for controlling this public health threat.
The novel H7n9 influenza virus was identified in China as the agent that causes a flu-like disease in humans resulting in some deaths.
Of these samples 20 were positive for the presence of H7n9 influenza viruses. All of the positive samples originated from live poultry markets in Shanghai.
The analysis of these novel H7n9 influenza virus isolates showed that that the six internal genes were derived from avian H9n2 viruses
HA receptor-binding specificity is a major molecular determinant for the host range of influenza viruses.
which is characteristic of the HA gene in human influenza viruses. This finding implies that H7n9 viruses have acquired partially human receptor-binding specificity.
#Potential flu pandemic lurks: Influenza viruses circulating in pigs, birds could pose risk to humansin the summer of 1968 a new strain of influenza appeared in Hong kong.
This strain known as H3n2 spread around the globe and eventually killed an estimated 1 million people.
A new study from MIT reveals that there are many strains of H3n2 circulating in birds
The researchers led by Ram Sasisekharan the Alfred H. Caspary Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT also found that current flu vaccines might not offer protection against these strains.
From a pandemic-preparedness point of view we should potentially start including some of these H3 strains as part of influenza vaccines.
Influenza evolutionin the past 100 years influenza viruses that emerged from pigs or birds have caused several notable flu pandemics.
When one of these avian or swine viruses gains the ability to infect humans it can often evade the immune system which is primed to recognize only strains that commonly infect humans.
since the 1968 pandemic but they have evolved to a less dangerous form that produces a nasty seasonal flu.
and helps determine how well an influenza virus can evade a host's immune response. The researchers also took into account the patterns of attachment of the HA protein to sugar molecules called glycans.
The researchers then exposed some of these strains to antibodies provoked by the current H3 seasonal-flu vaccines.
One of the amazing things about the influenza virus is its ability to grab genes from different pools he says.
Sasisekharan and colleagues are now doing a similar genetic study of H5 influenza strains. The H3 study was funded by the National institutes of health and the National Science Foundation Story Source:
#Risks of H7n9 infection mappeda map of avian influenza (H7n9) risk is presented in Biomed Central's open access journal Infectious diseases of Poverty today.
The preliminary results of our study made a prediction of bird flu risk which could explain the pattern of the most recent cases.
and osteoporosis. The nutrient also plays an integral role in modulating the immune system to help fight infections like the flu
The recent human cases of H7n9 avian influenza demonstrate the importance of adopting the lessons learned from H5n1 avian influenza.
Economic studies and studies on small scale producers showed that these producers were hit very hard by avian influenza.
In areas affected by H7n9 influenza which already covers Jiangsu Zhejiang and Anhui provinces and beyond support for taking up alternative jobs should be considered for households rearing poultry
The measures in place on these farms would not be sufficient to prevent an H7n9 influenza virus from gaining entry to farms
Studies on wild birds conducted as part of APEIR demonstrated the importance of undertaking surveillance in wild birds to characterise the influenza viruses carried by these birds.
The studies conducted by APEIR did find some additional influenza virus subtypes other than H5n1 viruses
and this information helps in understanding the transmission of other influenza viruses by wild birds.
APEIR recommended that all gene sequences of influenza viruses should be shared as soon as they are available
APEIR researchers including Professor Lei Fumin of the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences are currently investigating the possible role of wild birds in transmission of H7n9 avian influenza.
This study on avian influenza policies also found that agriculture sectoral policy should be coherent with public health sectoral policy
so as to minimise effects on livelihoods and to prevent the disease caused by H7n9 avian influenza. APEIR is poised to play an important role in investigating
#Predicting hotspots for future flu outbreaksthis year's unusually long and rocky flu season would be compared nothing to the pandemic that could occur
if bird flu became highly contagious among humans which is why UCLA researchers and their colleagues are creating new ways to predict where an outbreak could emerge.
Using surveillance of influenza cases in humans and birds we've come up with a technique to predict sites where these viruses could mix
and Egypt's Nile Delta are danger zones where bird flu could combine with human flu to create a virulent kind of super-flu.
--and use the researchers'models to identify other hotspots--for increased monitoring of flu in humans livestock poultry and wild birds.
That could help detect a novel flu virus before it spreads worldwide the researchers said.
The research paper Predicting Hotspots for Influenza Virus Reassortment was published March 13 in the peer-reviewed public health journal Emerging Infectious diseases.
Previous pandemics such as the 1957 and 1968 influenzas that each killed more than a million people or the 2009 H1n1 swine flu outbreak that killed 280000 worldwide developed
when viruses from humans and animals exchanged genes to create a new virus in a process called reassortment.
Recent research using mice confirms that genes from bird flu and human flu can combine to create dangerous new flu strains.
Swine which are susceptible to both bird and human flu could serve as a mixing vessel for reassortment between the two viruses.
The mixing of genetic material between the seasonal human flu virus and bird flu can create novel virus strains that are more lethal than either of the original viruses said senior author Thomas Smith director of the Center for Tropical
Research and a professor at UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and the UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
The researchers looked for locations where bird flu outbreaks human flu outbreaks and swine populations overlapped to predict hotspots where reassortment is more likely using a $1. 3 million grant from the Fogarty International Center at the National institutes of health.
The research focused on two flu strains that studies in mice have shown can combine with lethal results:
the seasonal H3n2 human flu and the H5n1 strain of bird flu that has crossed occasionally over into humans.
While the World health organization has identified six countries as hosts to ongoing widespread bird flu infections in poultry in 2011--China Egypt India Vietnam Indonesia
Not all flu outbreaks whether bird or human are tracked. The scientists had to identify indicators of flu outbreaks such as dense poultry populations
or rain and temperatures that encourage flu transmission. For each type of flu we identified variables that were predictive of the various virus strains Fuller said.
We wanted a map of predictions continuously across the whole country including locations where we didn't have data on flu outbreaks.
Although the researchers had bird flu data for parts of both China and Egypt other countries such as Indonesia don't have full reporting systems in place.
Even in China and Egypt accurate reporting is hampered by farmers who may conceal flu outbreaks in order to sell their livestock.
If we provide incentives for better reporting we could more precisely predict future outbreaks Fuller said.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of California-Los angeles. The original article was written by Alison Hewitt.
(or at least large sections of it) from pathogenic variants of influenza viruses for example or from completely new pathogens explains Greenwood.
#Clues to flus mechanisms uncovered: Scientists analyze how influenza-related proteins help infect cellsa flu virus acts like a Trojan horse as it attacks
and infects host cells. Scientists at Rice university and Baylor College of Medicine have acquired a clearer view of the well-hidden mechanism involved.
Their computer simulations may lead to new strategies to stop influenza perhaps even a one-size-fits-all vaccine.
The discovery detailed this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows the path taken by hemagglutinin a glycoprotein that rides the surface of the influenza virus as it releases fusion peptides to invade a host cell.
Ma said the key to stopping the flu could be to attack these intermediate structures.
this is the reason people need flu shots every year. But he suspects the inner part of the protein is conserved more highly.
Such agents could lead to a universal flu vaccine that would last a lifetime. He said the membrane fusion mechanism is shared widely among many biological systems
which makes influenza a good model for studying other diseases. HIV has one. Ebola has one.
Hause's most recent work has led to the discovery of an influenza virus in cattle.
A swine sample came in that we thought was influenza but all other tests were said negative Hause.
We found instead that this was an entirely new type of influenza. Subsequent research has shown that it is widespread in cattle not just pigs.
Now we're studying the association of this strain of bovine influenza with respiratory disease in feedlots.
Some diseases such as flu mutate and change rapidly and can jump from humans to pigs
#Conditions linked to deadly bird flu revealed: High risk areas identifieda dangerous strain of avian influenza H7n9 that's causing severe illness and deaths in China may be inhabiting a small fraction of its potential range
and appears at risk of spreading to other suitable areas of India Bangladesh Vietnam Indonesia
Unlike H5n1 the other virulent form of avian influenza to emerge in recent years H7n9 produces little signs of illness in birds
For example in the avian influenza study the maps helped researchers rule out intensive poultry operations in Northeastern China as a source of H7n9
#Study fingers chickens, quail in spread of H7n9 influenza virusamong the copious species of poultry in China quail and chickens are the likely sources of infection of H7n9 influenza virus
The H7n9 avian influenza virus was reported first in humans in March 2013 in China. Since then over 375 human cases have been confirmed
This work supports the need for better surveillance in animal species for avian influenza says Suarez.
#Birds of all feathers and global flu diversitya group of international scientists have completed the first global inventory of flu strains in birds by reviewing more than 50 published studies
and performed as part of the USAID PREDICT project identified over 116 avian flu strains in wild birds.
Avian flu outbreaks come with no warning. In 2013 an H7n9 avian flu strain caused a deadly outbreak in people in China.
This surprised virologists as the strain had caused never before disease in humans. To date there have been more than 300 clinical cases of H7n9 with a 33 percent mortality rate.
(when a virus jumps from one species to another) of avian flu can be traced back to human contact with domestic poultry.
Although avian flu strain diversity often originates in wild birds it is the mixing of viruses among poultry pigs
and monitor the diversity of all avian flu viruses--not just those known to cause disease.
Completing the first global inventory of flu strains in birds is a key step in building that understanding.
This snapshot of the world of flu virus diversity in birds is the outcome of many years of ecology
and adequately financing surveillance to describe global flu diversity. To address this the authors introduced a new method
which borrows on approaches used by ecologists to estimate the diversity of flu viruses in a particular location.
With this approach health authorities can design surveillance programs to detect a given percentage of flu virus diversity.
The scientists also looked at patterns of flu diversity in different bird hosts. Mallards carry the highest number of strains at 89
Given that flu viruses can jump from domestic poultry to people ongoing efforts at improving biosecurity at poultry farms
or as debilitating as influenza. But almost nothing is known regarding how pathogens of pollinators are transmitted at flowers postdoctoral researcher Scott Mcart
#Study on flu evolution may change textbooks, history booksa new study reconstructing the evolutionary tree of flu viruses challenges conventional wisdom
and solves some of the mysteries surrounding flu outbreaks of historical significance. The study published in the journal Nature provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of the evolutionary relationships of influenza virus across different host species over time.
In addition to dissecting how the virus evolves at different rates in different host species the study challenges several tenets of conventional wisdom--for example the notion that the virus moves largely unidirectionally from wild birds to domestic birds rather than with spillover
in the other direction. It also helps resolve the origin of the virus that caused the unprecedentedly severe influenza pandemic of 1918 The new research is likely to change how scientists
and health experts look at the history of influenza virus how it has changed genetically over time
and how it has jumped between different host species. The findings may have implications ranging from the assessment of health risks for populations to developing vaccines.
Using the new family tree of the flu virus as a map showed which species moved to which host species and when.
It revealed that for several of its 8 genomic segments avian influenza virus is not nearly as ancient as often assumed.
which included UA graduate student Guan-Zhu Han and Andrew Rambaut a professor from the University of Edinburgh who is affiliated also with the U s. National institutes of health found a strong signature in the data suggesting that something revolutionary happened to avian influenza virus
Worobey said the timing is provocative because of the correlation of that sudden shift in the flu virus'evolution with historical events in the late nineteenth century.
In the 1870s an immense horse flu outbreak swept across North america Worobey said City by city
The horse flu outbreak pulled the rug out from under the economy. According to Worobey the newly generated evolutionary trees show a global replacement of the genes in the avian flu virus coinciding closely with the horse flu outbreak
which the analyses also reveal to be the closest relative to the avian virus. Interestingly a previous research paper analyzing old newspaper records reported that in the days following the horse flu outbreak there were repeated outbreaks described at the time as influenza killing chickens
and other domestic birds Worobey said. That's another unexpected link in the history and the there is a possibility that the two might be connected given
Ever since the influenza pandemic of 1918 it has not been possible to narrow down even to a hemisphere the geographic origins of any of the genes of the pandemic virus. Our study changes that Worobey said.
The results also challenge the accepted wisdom of wild birds as the major reservoir harboring the flu virus from where it jumps to domestic birds
Last year a campaign to vaccinate children in Scotland against influenza was halted because of concern in the Muslim community about pork gelatine within the vaccine.
Do you want a flu shot? The kiosk has the capability to ask a series of targeted questions.
Have you been exposed to swine flu? The machines are all the same, but the questions are tailored by the client.
Potato blight and flu have much in common
Dell, HP vie for spotlight again. This time, on environmental leadership. It being climate week
Potato blight and flu have much in commonin 1846 the first of my ancestors arrived in America.
Which turns out to have a lot in common with a disease stalking my family (and yours) today, the flu.
The influenza germ is constantly changing and the potato blight is capable of similar changes. Senior author Gene Nusbaum of Harvard described its ability to change as exquisite.
and tomato crops throughout the U s. Flu has similar adaptability. Just this week scientists have found N1h1 infecting deeper into the lungs than seasonal flu
while Israel has isolated a strain that resists Tamiflu, the most common antiviral. By attacking this adaptability, pandemic skeptic Peter Palese of the Mt.
the flu virus can be controlled. Here again the potato blight offers some clues. Nearly three-quarters of the blight's genome consists of junk DNA,
Now if we can just to the same with the flu
Protesting in Brussels? Throw milk at the governmentthinking of protests, kettling, bottle and coke-can missiles,
Richard Webby, health expert, on the new deadly flu strainlast spring, on April 9, 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) raised its Emergency Operations center to Level II
The Chinese government reported increasing numbers of humans falling dangerously ill due to a powerful new flu strain, H7n9,
Smartplanet spoke with Dr. Richard Webby, Director of the World health organization Collaborating Center for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds at St jude Children's Research Hospital.
We know that the H7n9 flu has infected humans, and some of the cases were fatal.
I imagine there are a great number of flu strains that are carried by animal populations at any given time.
In the animal population there is a whole soup of flu viruses. We are not good at determining
Was there any overt indication that this strain of flu was more of a risk?
--which is the other bird flu that has been going for a decade or more now-there has been 600 cases in humans.
but it did have some signatures that we associate with mammalian virus. Where does this virus rank among the flu viruses we know about already?
But if we rank it highest amongst the avian flu viruses, what does that mean? The next leap is:
But flu viruses do change. If you give them enough opportunity they will adapt to a new host.
Is it stronger than a regular flu? are infected humans much sicker? Is there a higher chance of pneumonia?
what stops a lot of the severe disease of the normal human flu strains is immunity. Essentially anyone over the age of 10 years has had probably the flu a couple of times,
and at least in the U s.,most have been vaccinated a couple of times. So we have quite a bit of immunity to the human flu viruses.
And that probably stunts a lot of the ability of that virus to cause disease. It can still get in
We group flu viruses into pathogenic types. Highly pathogenic or low pathogenic. Some viruses of the H5n7 type fall into a very virulent form.
With any flu viruses there is a period when you're infectious before you start to get clinical signs.
What do you think avian flu will do over the next 10 to 15 years? What is the potential for a possible pandemic?
We would like to be on course toward a universal flu vaccine. We have vaccinated against the H1
There is some hope that perhaps we can target other parts of the virus. There is a lot of work toward creating a universal flu vaccine.
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