MicrobeWorld App

Watch Live Events

Featured Image

Featured Video

mbmb2

Supporters

Home Swine Flu is all pork, not avian or human, claims researchers

Swine Flu is all pork, not avian or human, claims researchers

submitted by ccondayan on April 29, 2009
Share this page:
Tags: flu , source , strain , swine , virology
Source: www.wired.com
Image
Turns out reports that Swine Flu is a combination of pig, human and avian influenza strains may be inaccurate. Frome Wired.com - "The deadly H1N1 influenza virus that’s fueling fears of a global pandemic is a hybrid of two common pig flu strains, scientists who have studied the disease told Wired.com Tuesday. Earlier reports called it a combination of pig, human and avian influenza strains. The findings may resolve some uncertainty about the nature of the virus, but much is still unknown about its origins and effects."
 
 

Comments (1)

  1. avatar Chris Condayan makes this comment

    Tue May 5 20:48:43 2009

    Turns out a few days later that the NY Times interviewed a researcher who debunks this story. Here's an excerpt: It is essentially a blend of Eurasian swine flu and North American swine flu, but Western hemisphere strains have had an avian segment on the PB2 gene for at least 10 years and a human component on the PB1 gene since 1993, said Henry L. Niman, a biochemist who tracks flu mutations. “The original report is correct,” Dr. Niman said of the C.D.C.’s analysis. The rumors, he added in an e-mail message, stem from “someone who really doesn’t know how to analyze sequences (or is being misquoted.)” Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/health/01origin.html?_r=1

Collections (0)

 

American Society for Microbiology
2012 1752 N Street, N.W. • Washington, DC 20036-2904 • (202) 737-3600

Copyright © American Center for Microbiology 2012. All Rights Reserved.