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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Mon Apr 29, 2013, 07:54 AM Apr 2013

study: new bird flu jumped directly from chickens

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_MED_CHINA_BIRD_FLU?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-04-25-11-49-45

LONDON (AP) -- Chinese scientists have for the first time found strong evidence of how humans became infected with a new strain of bird flu: from chickens at a live market.

Chinese scientists compared swabs from birds at markets in eastern China to virus samples from four patients who caught the new H7N9 virus. The scientists found the virus from one patient was nearly identical to one found in a chicken. The research was published online Thursday in the journal Lancet.

Finding definitive proof of how patients were infected is very difficult and experts have so far struggled to find much virus in birds. Despite taking nearly 48,000 samples from animals in live markets, Chinese officials found only 39 positive tests for H7N9. Experts had suspected birds in live markets to be the source of infection but weren't sure if other animals or wild birds might also be responsible.

Health officials have so far refrained from recommending any wide-scale slaughter of poultry to contain the disease, one of the main tools used previously to combat another bird flu strain, H5N1. Unlike that strain, H7N9 doesn't appear to sicken chickens, giving experts fewer signs as to where it might be spreading.
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study: new bird flu jumped directly from chickens (Original Post) xchrom Apr 2013 OP
The fried chicken's revenge! Warpy Apr 2013 #1

Warpy

(110,913 posts)
1. The fried chicken's revenge!
Mon Apr 29, 2013, 04:09 PM
Apr 2013

Most new strains of flu are avian strains, which is why vaccines are incubated in eggs.

We're overdue for a pandemic, but my guess is that it won't be flu. It will be something out of the blue that we have no defense for.

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