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H5N1 bird flu virus able to jump to pigs
The 09 Sep. 2010 at 07:43Last newsComments (0)Add a comment
The H5N1 bird flu virus may be evolving the ability to spread from mammal to mammal, says a team who have discovered that pigs in Indonesia have been infected with the disease since 2005.
The H5N1 bird flu kills 60 per cent of the people it infects. However, most infections occur after direct contact with an infected bird and the disease does not appear to spread well between humans. One way the virus could develop the ability to spread among humans is to first infect pigs, which have many biochemical similarities to humans. Flu viruses adapted to pigs have less trouble adapting to humans than do bird flu viruses – one pig-adapted virus caused the swine flu pandemic in 2009.
Chairul Nidom of Airlangga University in Surabaya, Indonesia, and colleagues in Japan have been tracking H5N1 in pigs since 2005 in Indonesia, the country hardest hit by the avian flu virus. They now report that between 2005 to 2007 -when the avian flu peaked- 7.4 per cent of 700 pigs they tested also carried H5N1. There have been sporadic reports of H5N1 in pigs, but this is the first time the extent of the problem has been measured.
Not from pig to pig
In each case, the virus in pigs closely resembled H5N1 from nearby outbreaks in poultry, suggesting it has jumped from the bird to the pig population. That and the small proportion of pigs infected suggest the virus cannot yet spread between pigs. "If the virus was better adapted to pigs it would have spread like wildfire," says Ab Osterhaus of the University of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, a flu expert not involved in the research.
Virus can easily evade
Since 2007, avian flu outbreaks have diminished in poultry and in people in Indonesia and the investigators found that the rate of infection in pigs has similarly dropped. The team showed that infected pigs show no symptoms. "H5N1 viruses could easily evade detection as they spread through Indonesia in asymptomatic pigs," warn Nidom and colleagues. Nidom says that in one pig, the virus had developed the ability to bind to a molecule present in the noses of both pigs and humans. That's exactly the kind of change that could allow it to spread between people. "This shows we should keep a close watch on pig flu, as it can change rapidly," warns Osterhaus.
New EU collaboration
The European Union is heeding the call and is funding a scientific collaboration called FLUPIG, to study how bird flu adapts to pigs and how it spreads to people. It will meet for the first time later this month.
[Source: Emerging Infectious Diseases]
Virus expert: Bird flu still pandemic danger, warns against complacency
The 05 Sep. 2010 at 18:26Last newsComments (0)Add a comment
WHO declared the swine flu pandemic over last month. The latest death toll is just over 18,600 - far below the millions that were once predicted.
Hong Kong : A leading virus expert has urged health authorities around the world to stay vigilant even though the recent swine flu pandemic was less deadly than expected, warning that bird flu could spark the next global outbreak.
WHO declared the swine flu pandemic over last month. The latest death toll is just over 18,600 - far below the millions that were once predicted. The head of the global health body has credited good preparation and luck, as the H1N1 swine flu virus didn't mutate as some had feared.
Speaking to reporters at a conference in Hong Kong, researcher Robert Webster warned against complacency and predicted that the next pandemic could be sparked by a virus that spreads from water fowl to pigs and then onto humans - such as the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed 300 people over the past seven years.
Mutated avian flu can infect humans
The 02 Sep. 2010 at 11:03Last newsComments (0)Add a comment
A strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) that mutated in pigs in Indonesia has acquired the ability to infect humans, researchers have found.
The discovery was made by a team led by virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Tokyo's Institute of Medical Science.
"There are concerns that a highly pathogenic flu virus which can easily be transmitted to humans could spread without being noticed," Kawaoka said. "Pigs must be tested for viruses even if they don't show symptoms."
Kawaoka and other Japanese researchers, in cooperation with Indonesia's Airlangga University, examined nasal, fecal and serum samples from 702 randomly chosen pigs in 14 provinces from 2005 to 2009.
Of pigs examined from 2005 to 2007, 7.4 percent yielded avian flu strains, which further studies showed were from an outbreak among poultry in the neighborhood.
Among 39 virus samples analyzed, one was found to have the ability to attach itself to human nasal or throat cells.
In the 2008-2009 survey, pigs showed traces of past infections, but no viruses were isolated.
Avian influenza usually does not infect humans. But because pigs are susceptible to both avian and human flu, the flu strain in question is believed to have mutated in an infected pig.
"Our data suggests that pigs are at risk of infection during outbreaks of influenza virus A (H5N1) and can serve as intermediate hosts in which this avian virus can adapt to mammals," the team said in a report published in the online edition of the journal "Emerging Infectious Diseases" of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
BY YURI OIWA THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Vietnam Reports Six Outbreaks of Bird Flu
The 18 Aug. 2010 at 23:58Last newsComments (0)Add a comment
There were six outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza across the country of Vietnam between early May and mid-July this year.
The authorities sent an Immediate Notification dated August 17 to the World Organization for Animal Health.
The report describes six outbreaks (at two farms and four villages) of HPAI in four provinces of the country.
In total, 6,525 birds were involved, of which 5,000 died and 1,525 were destroyed.
The presence of the H5N1 sub-type of the virus has been confirmed.
H5N1: Research team finds signal that predicts flu spread in humans
The 07 Aug. 2010 at 18:04Last newsComments (0)Add a comment
An international team of researchers led by a university professor from Japan has discovered a biochemical signal in flu virus that indicates whether it would infect humans and spread, the US science journal PLoS Pathogens has said.Professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka of University of Tokyo found out that if either of two particular amino acids, lysine or arginine, is observed in position 591 in PB2 protein of flu viruses, it will lead to efficient replication of highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus or the pandemic new-type H1N1 virus in humans.
“Even the H5N1 virus, which rarely spreads to humans, would be able to replicate in humans if the amino acids are observed in this area (position 591),” said Kawaoka, a Director of the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Tokyo.
Findings are expected to help public health authorities predict the spread of H5N1 in humans, which had killed 299 of 503 confirmed cases in 15 countries, mostly in Asia, since 2003 as of Tuesday, according to the World Health Organisation.
The new H1N1 has spread to over 214 countries and territories with at least 18,398 fatal cases as of July 25, after its outbreak in April 2009, the WHO said.
Up until now, amino acids lysine and asparagine in two other positions in PB2 protein were considered critical for adaptation of bird flu viruses in humans, prompting scientists to question why the H1N1, which lacked the amid acids, spread in humans.
With the findings by Kawaoka’s team, which comprises scientists from Japanese, American and Indonesian universities and research institutes, human infection has become more predictable since if relevant type of amino acids is found in any of the three positions in a flu virus’ PB2 protein, it is likely to infect humans and spread.