FLICKR, WHIZ-KAEarlier this year, the avian influenza virus H7N9 infected more than 130 people in China, causing more than 40 deaths before the outbreak fizzled out in May. Now, analyses of viral samples collected from poultry markets in April indicate that some Chinese birds may have also been infected with the related virus H7N7, according to research published yesterday (August 21) in Nature.
“H7 is out there in China and not just in the form of this H7N9,” Richard Webby, a flu researcher at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee, told Nature News.
During the human outbreak last spring, researchers took throat and cloacal samples from 1,341 chickens, ducks, geese, and other birds. They also collected more than 1,000 fecal and water samples from live poultry markets, wetlands, and farms. In this latest paper, the researchers report having found H7N9 viruses in live poultry markets in parts of China, plus another virus—H7N7.
By examining historical avian flu virus sequences from geographically diverse areas, the researchers concluded that the H7N9 and H7N7 strains in China likely evolved as various H7 and N9 viruses reassorted in ducks before spreading ...
