By Nancy Lapid(Reuters) – The bird flu virus strain that infected a Texas dairy farm worker in March was lethal to ferrets in experiments designed to mimic the disease in humans, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Friday.Seasonal flu, by contrast, makes ferrets sick but does not kill them, the CDC said.Ferrets are considered the best small mammal for studying influenza virus infection and transmission and are commonly used as a tool to inform public health risk assessments of emerging influenza viruses, according to the CDC.The strain of the (A)H5N1 avian influenza virus found in Texas spread easily among healthy ferrets when they were placed in direct contact with infected ferrets, the researchers found.The virus was less efficient than other influenza strains at spreading by respiratory droplets, however.This suggests that viruses like this one “would need to undergo changes to spread efficiently by droplets through the air, such as from coughs and sneezes,” the CDC said.Bird flu has been reported in more than 80 dairy herds across 11 U.S. states since late March. Scientists are on alert for changes in the virus that could signal it is adapting to spread more easily among humans.Reuters reported earlier on Friday that U.S. federal and state agencies are …
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnBy Nancy Lapid(Reuters) – The bird flu virus strain that infected a Texas dairy farm worker in March was lethal to ferrets in experiments designed to mimic the disease in humans, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Friday.Seasonal flu, by contrast, makes ferrets sick but does not kill them, the CDC said.Ferrets are considered the best small mammal for studying influenza virus infection and transmission and are commonly used as a tool to inform public health risk assessments of emerging influenza viruses, according to the CDC.The strain of the (A)H5N1 avian influenza virus found in Texas spread easily among healthy ferrets when they were placed in direct contact with infected ferrets, the researchers found.The virus was less efficient than other influenza strains at spreading by respiratory droplets, however.This suggests that viruses like this one “would need to undergo changes to spread efficiently by droplets through the air, such as from coughs and sneezes,” the CDC said.Bird flu has been reported in more than 80 dairy herds across 11 U.S. states since late March. Scientists are on alert for changes in the virus that could signal it is adapting to spread more easily among humans.Reuters reported earlier on Friday that U.S. federal and state agencies are …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
