🔬 "The H5N6 Virus Containing Internal Genes From H9N2 Exhibits Enhanced Pathogenicity and Transmissibility"

(avian influenza - bird flu)

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1155/tbed/6252849

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the H5N6 virus, whose internal genes were derived from H9N2, could pose a greater threat to human health. Therefore, continuous monitoring of different recombinant H5N6 viruses in poultry should be carried out to prevent their transmission to humans
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It's not just the h5n1 type of avian influenza that is a problem, a "looming threat" somewhere near the horizon. There are other types that are making evolutionary gains to infect more fleshy biomass.

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Genetic recombination of AIVs is very common in wild birds, but stable genomic evolution occurs in poultry [18, 19]. Due to the migration routes, habitat geography, and ecological distribution of birds, as well as complex herd immunity, progressively AIV carried by birds accumulate amino acid substitution, while stable host transformations such as poultry, horses, pigs, and humans lead to several poorly characterized mutations that separate single clonal influenza virus strains from the AIV gene pool of large wild birds [20].
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The whole world (but mostly the Northern Hemisphere) is a natural laboratory for avian influenza viruses. These viruses "innovate" between wild birds, and then pave new roads into many mammals, especially the very large biomass of domestic mammals.

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the combination of large poultry populations allows natural selection to effectively drive rapid antigenic and genetic changes within a single subtype, while recombination with the AIV gene pool carried in wild birds contributes to the generation of a new genome pool [18]. Poultry plays an important role in the evolution of new recombinant AIVs, and stable genetic evolution is a characteristic of AIVs for adapting to mammals [18, 19].
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Wild birds (and small/backyard birds) drive the evolution of new genetic traits. Large domestic bird flocks stabilize the new traits, allowing for "scaling up" infection. As Rob Wallace put it: "Big Farms Make Big Flu" (he has a book).

#avianInfluenza #birdFlu #poultry #farm #farming #zoonoses #zoonosis #flock #BigFlu #goVegan

#MooFlu forever

The NYT finally notices that the avian influenza virus been victorious in infecting US cow farms:

"How U.S. Farms Could Start a Bird Flu Pandemic"

https://archive.is/5eOOt

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/21/health/bird-flu-cattle-pandemic.html

The virus is not going away. Apparently, the cows' udders are excellent viral breeding spots. So the Big Dairy industry is going to literally fulfill Rob Wallace's book title from years ago: "Big farms make big flu".

The fact that it's endemic in cows or "enzootic", as they put it, means that the cows are plague spreaders. Wherever they go: bird flu. Wherever the raw milk goes: bird flu. Whoever works there: bird flu. Whoever works there and travels to other animal farms... flu chaos. That's the thing, influenza viruses don't stay the same, they evolve and they also mix with other influenza viruses ("reassortment"). This means that any other influenza virus needs to be kept away from these cows, including seasonal flu (humans) and pig flu. What are the odds of this isolation happening successfully long-term?

The NYT article noticed that this failure is akin to what happened in China in 2019 when they successfully failed to end the (very large and profitable) wild animal farming sector which was the breeding ground for SARS-CoV-2. Whoever is reading this, you can be certain that there already are "lab leak" conspiracy theories about the mooFlu in the US. Neither regimes are going to do anything about it, as these sectors are large and create GDP, and what is needed is to end them.

#avianInfluenza #HPAI #milk #bigMIlk #bigDairy #cows #cattle #zoonosis #pandemic #birdFlu #enzootic #capitalism #BigBusiness #BigFarms #BigFlu

"DSHS Reports First Human Case of Avian Influenza in Texas"

from contact with cows 🐮🦠🤠

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The Texas Department of State Health Services is reporting a human case of avian influenza A(H5N1) virus in Texas. The case was identified in a person who had direct exposure to dairy cattle presumed to be infected with avian influenza.
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(Highly Pathogenic) Avian Influenza is the official name (H5N1). Bird flu is the common name.

This probably isn't "patient zero", the influenza virus would have to acquire more useful mutations to spread well from human to human, but it's certainly a step in that direction. Such mutations can be accelerated by encountering other animals infected with different influenza types, human or not.

https://www.dshs.texas.gov/news-alerts/dshs-reports-first-human-case-avian-influenza-texas

#Texas #influenza #birdFlu #avian #cow #cattle #dairy #milk #industry #bigFlu #bigDairy #bigBeef #zoonosis #h5n1