Scientists sound alarms about a genetic mutation that was recently identified in four stoves of milk, almost a year after the first H5N1 bird flu, which was first reported at Texas -Milchvieh.
The change is one that researchers have feared because it is mammal with an increased transmission of mammals and is associated with severity of the disease.
“This is the mutation Found in the first human caseWhat was extremely pathogenic for ferrets, ”said Yoshihiro Kaaka, an expert in infectious diseases at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the University of Tokyo. “Finding the same mutation in cows is significant.”
The mutation is called PB2 E627K and was seen in March in Texan's milk workers last March. It was only seen again until these sequences were uploaded late Tuesday. The data was uploaded by the USDA national veterinary services to a genetic repository of public access Gisaid.
Henry Niman, an evolutionary molecular biologist at Rekombinomics Inc., a virus and vaccine research company in Pittsburgh, checked the sequence data and reported on the results of the time and Wednesday on social media.
Last summer, Kawoaka exposed ferret in his laboratory for this viral trunk. He found that the ferrets were able to transferred the virus to each other over breath droplets, and 100% of the infected animals killed.
The Texas milk worker only complained about conjunctivitis; He had neither fever nor showed signs of breathing dysfunction.
The data provided by GISAID do not contain any location data, so that scientists often use other information to identify the herds.
In this case, it is likely that the sequence data was added on Tuesday, probably from herds, who were recently reported by the USDA. Last week, herds from Idaho and California were added to the USDA's balance sheet.
The herds in California have the more common B3.13 strain, which has been associated with milk cows since last year. The tribe circulating in Idaho is D1.1, which went over from wild birds at the beginning of this year.
Therefore, the new sequence data that were added on Tuesday – the variety B3.13 – probably come from infected California herds.
Since the outbreak was reported in dairy cows last March last March, 70 people have been infected and one person has died. According to USDA, 985 herds of dairy were infected, 754 of those in California.