From the Telegraph, April 25:
Alarm as bird flu found to ‘efficiently’ spread between ferrets
Ferrets are used by scientists to understand how flu bugs could impact humans and say the findings are worrying
The bird flu virus that is killing millions of animals around the world has been found to “efficiently” spread between ferrets in a laboratory, raising concerns about the potential for the virus to jump to humans.
In a new preprint, scientists in Canada demonstrated that H5N1 samples taken from a red tailed hawk spread efficiently between ferrets – the main “animal model” used by scientists in experiments to analyse how respiratory viruses may impact people.
It is the first study to clearly confirm that the virus can spread from mammal to mammal – although the recent deaths of many animals, including sea lions, have previously suggested this. Analysis of an outbreak at a mink farm in Spain and in seals in New England have also pointed towards spread between mammals.
But the results from Canada suggest that some strains of H5N1 with “certain adaptations that allow for a higher degree of replication, pathogenicity, and transmission” may be spreading.
Over the last 18 months, avian influenza has devastated wild and farmed bird populations across the globe. But there has also been mounting alarm around cases in mammals including foxes, sea lions, dolphins and even domestic cats.
This has created unprecedented opportunities for the virus to shift and reassort – a process where different strains of the same pathogen combine into something new.
“The risk [for humans] is increasing in the sense that there is a lot of virus in poultry and wild birds,” Prof Munir Iqbal, a member of the UK government’s modelling group for bird flu, told the Telegraph recently.
“The virus can change at any time, and therefore the risk is higher when there’s more in the environment. That doesn’t mean [a human epidemic] is imminent… but no one has control of the virus,” he said.'We have to stay on our toes'
So far, cases in people have been sporadic and health agencies have maintained the threat is low.
But the latest study points towards the “potential for this virus to infect and transmit between mammals including humans,” according to researchers at organisations including the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Prof Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist who was not involved in the research, said the preprint, which is yet to be peer reviewed, is a reminder of the threat posed when slightly different H5N1 strains combine.
“[The] most important message here is: let's not assume we know ‘the’ properties of viruses that are spreading so widely,” she told the Telegraph on Monday....
....MUCH MORE
Here's the pre-print of the paper:
Transmission of lethal H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b avian influenza in ferrets
The headline at the Daily Mail is a bit more tabloid-y:
Fresh pandemic fears as virologists discover bird flu spreads 'efficiently' in ferrets - sparking warning that strain could be 100 TIMES worse than Covid if it ever jumps to humans
I was about to say "Watch out for the 'effin cats" as cats are pretty efficient bird killers but now we see, also at the Daily Mail, April 25:
Now be prepared for DOG FLU! Mutated form of avian influenza that strikes canines is 'creeping' towards being able to infect humans, scientists say
We've been following this nastiness for years, usually from the agricultural angle but also because of a couple rat-bastard scientist. Previously:
February 15, 2023"Bird flu may mutate to kill more than 50% of humans who catch it, as a result of 'unprecedented' outbreak sweeping mammals, experts fear"
Hopefully not related:
I had forgotten about Ron Fouchier until a friend sent an article from the journal Science. But sure enough we had November 2011's "UPDATED--"Dutch Scientists Have Genetically Altered the H5N1 Bird Flu Virus to Make it More Contagious" (could kill half humanity)" and then when they wanted to publish the recipe and the U.S. said no: "Psychotic Dutch Scientists: "Killer flu doctors: US censorship is a danger to science".Our outro from that long ago post was
"The U.S. National Institutes of Health funded the research. They own it. If Fouchier doesn't understand the implications of publication the NIH had to step in. This is just nuts."And the article from Science?
March 9, 2012Surprising Twist in Debate Over Lab-Made H5N1....
Also:
"Bioengineering The Age of Designer Plagues"
And F***ed up:
Via "L’olandese del Coronavirus. Ed altri scriteriati."
Oh, and this "Fouchier study reveals changes enabling airborne spread of H5N1":
A study showing that it takes as few as five mutations to turn the H5N1 avian influenza virus into an airborne spreader in mammals—and that launched a historic debate on scientific accountability and transparency—was released today in Science, spilling the full experimental details that many experts had sought to suppress out of concern that publishing them could lead to the unleashing of a dangerous virus....
