Bird Flu Virus Research Articles

Could H5N1 bird flu virus be the cause of the next human pandemic?

Could H5N1 bird flu virus be the cause of the next human pandemic?

Does pasteurization inactivate bird flu virus in milk?

ABSTRACT Recently, an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1), which carries the clade 2.3.4.4b hemagglutinin (HA) gene and has been prevalent among North American bird populations since the winter of 2021, was reported in dairy cows in the United States. As of 24 May 2024, the virus has affected 63 dairy herds across nine states and has resulted in two human infections. The virus causes unusual symptoms in dairy cows, including an unexpected drop in milk production, and thick colostrum-like milk. Notably, The US Food and Drug Administration reported that around 20% of tested retail milk samples contained H5N1 viruses, with a higher percentage of positive results from regions with infected cattle herds. Data are scant regarding how effectively pasteurization inactivates the H5N1 virus in milk. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated the thermal stability of the H5 clade 2.3.4.4b viruses, along with one human H3N2 virus and other influenza subtype viruses, including H1, H3, H7, H9, and H10 subtype viruses. We also assessed the effectiveness of pasteurization in inactivating these viruses. We found that the avian H3 virus exhibits the highest thermal stability, whereas the H5N1 viruses that belong to clade 2.3.4.4b display moderate thermal stability. Importantly, our data provide direct evidence that the standard pasteurization methods used by dairy companies are effective in inactivating all tested subtypes of influenza viruses in raw milk. Our findings indicate that thermally pasteurized milk products do not pose a safety risk to consumers.

Current status and future challenges of avian influenza – a literature review

An infectious agent affecting both domestic and wild birds may cause avian influenza. All of them can be transmitted by coming into contact with tainted food, drink, or bird emissions, particularly feces. Numerous clades of H5N1 infections have been circulating since 2003, including one introduced to the United States in 2014 by wild birds, which persisted until 2016. There were 2,240 wild birds found in 45 states and 519 counties in the United States alone by September 14, 2022. According to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), the predominant Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) A (H5) virus subtype causing poultry outbreaks worldwide from late 2021 to early 2022 is A (H5N1). Most notifications from wild birds across multiple countries and regions suggest that the virus may have been introduced and spread via uncontrolled bird migration. The primary instance of a goose/Guangdong/1/96-lineage H5 HPAI infection inside the Americas since June 2015 was checked by the later disclosure of an H5N1 HPAI outbreak in Newfoundland, Canada. The avian flu Type A viruses, or bird flu viruses, rarely cause human infection; some bird flu viruses have done so in the past. The HPAI (H5) virus has been persistent in wild bird populations in Europe since the 2020-21 epidemic wave, according to the paper titled “Avian Influenza Overview: March-June 2022.” Even regions like Antarctica had avian influenza cases in 2023-24. Prevention and control can be done by monitoring and reporting outbreaks, preventing avian influenza at its source in animals, banning chicken farms, controlling methodologies, remuneration for ranchers, and vaccination.

Oxymatrine Modulation of TLR3 Signaling: A Dual-Action Mechanism for H9N2 Avian Influenza Virus Defense and Immune Regulation.

In our research, we explored a natural substance called Oxymatrine, found in a traditional Chinese medicinal plant, to fight against a common bird flu virus known as H9N2. This virus not only affects birds but can also pose a threat to human health. We focused on how this natural compound can help in stopping the virus from spreading in cells that line the lungs of birds and potentially humans. Our findings show that Oxymatrine can both directly block the virus and boost the body's immune response against it. This dual-action mechanism is particularly interesting because it indicates that Oxymatrine might be a useful tool in developing new ways to prevent and treat this type of bird flu. Understanding how Oxymatrine works against the H9N2 virus could lead to safer and more natural ways to combat viral infections in animals and humans, contributing to the health and well-being of society. The H9N2 Avian Influenza Virus (AIV) is a persistent health threat because of its rapid mutation rate and the limited efficacy of vaccines, underscoring the urgent need for innovative therapies. This study investigated the H9N2 AIV antiviral properties of Oxymatrine (OMT), a compound derived from traditional Chinese medicine, particularly focusing on its interaction with pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (PMVECs). Employing an array of in vitro assays, including 50% tissue culture infectious dose, Cell Counting Kit-8, reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and Western blot, we systematically elucidated the multifaceted effects of OMT. OMT dose-dependently inhibited critical antiviral proteins (PKR and Mx1) and modulated the expression of type I interferons and key cytokines (IFN-α, IFN-β, IL-6, and TNF-α), thereby affecting TLR3 signaling and its downstream elements (NF-κB and IRF-3). OMT's antiviral efficacy extended beyond TLR3-mediated responses, suggesting its potential as a versatile antiviral agent. This study not only contributes to the growing body of research on the use of natural compounds as antiviral agents but also underscores the importance of further investigating the broader application of OMT for combating viral infections.

Human death due to H5N1 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and Mpox outbreak: A call for action.

Human death due to H5N1 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and Mpox outbreak: A call for action.

Virology, Molecular Pathogenesis and Diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2: A Systematic Review

After past episodes of Zika, Nipah and Ebola viruses and also previous emergencies due to other viruses like swine flu and bird flu viruses, now in 21st century global disaster caused by nCoV virus. As the virus is still investigated for proper identification, there are very less option in choosing the proper detection method. So we have reviewed various article for giving an idea about pathogenesis and diagnostic methods. We had screened Google Scholar database with the keywords nCoV pathogenesis, molecular immune pathogenesis of COVID-19, virology of SARS-CoV-2, diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 and advancement of nCoV diagnosis. In the final review we have included a total of 84 articles. As a result we have reviewed the molecular virology along with molecular pathogenesis of COVID-19 in human body. We have found various ongoing researches on detection of nCoV related to nucleic acid amplification test, different types of RT-qPCR, serological assay and different HRCT methods.

The Science of COVID-19

The Science of COVID-19

Development of anexpress-method for influence and genotyping of H1N1 and H7N9 virus avian influenza a strains by PCR-RFLP analysis

Epizootic monitoring in recent years suggests that the highly pathogenic avian influenza A virus (H1N1) and (H7N9) actively circulate in the Eurasian countries. By 2016 - 2019 1.6 thousand outbreaks were recorded. For 2016 - 2019, 1.6 thousand cases of outbreaks were recorded. Of these, there are 872 cases in Europe. The monitoring of infected birds, both migratory and poultry, in places of cross-contact in Ukraine is relevant for preventing outbreaks of epizooties. The aim of the study. To develop an express method for the identification and determination of bird flu virus A H1N1 and H7N9 strains, based on a polymerase chain reaction with analysis of restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) of the virus RNA. Results and discussion. The in silico analysis of the HA, NA, and NP gene amplicons allowed in silico to calculate the primers to the variable loci of the investigated genes, to calculate the reaction conditions, to determine restriction sites for the restriction enzyme to obtain theoretical PCR electrophoregrams. An express method for the detection and identification of influenza A H1N1 and H7N9 virus by three genes (HA, NA, and NP) of H1N1 and H7N9 RNA in polymerase chain reaction, combined with RFLP analysis, was developed. The method of rapid diagnostics is able to detect avian influenza virus A H1N1 and H7N9 and differentiate it from samples of other pathogens of viral infections of birds and animals. It was established, that the PCR-RFLP rapid diagnostic method is able to detect influenza A virus RNA of H1N1 and H7N9 strains with high sensitivity (100 % sensitivity). Conclusions. The developed method of PCR-based rapid identification, combined with RFLP analysis, makes it possible to significantly simplify the method of identification due to specific amplification of an RNA region having a polymorphic restriction site. Testing of this locus is possible by pre-PCR and restriction of the amplified fragment. The method of express - diagnosis of PLR-RFLP has been established for detecting RNA virus influenza A of high pathogenic H1N1 and H7N9 strains with high indicators of sensitivity (100 % sensitivity)

Biochemistry and computer generated graph comparison of the structural and nonstructural proteins of spanish-1918 Influenza, pandemic-2009, and bird flu viruses.

The potential emergence of deadly pandemic influenza viruses is unpredictable and most have emerged with no forewarning. The distinct epidemiological and pathological patterns of the Spanish (H1N1), pandemic-2009 (H1N1), and avian influenza (H5N1), known as bird flu, viruses may allow us to develop a 'template' for possible emergence of devastating pandemic strains. Here, we provide a detailed molecular dissection of the structural and nonstructural proteins of this triad of viruses. GenBank data for three representative strains were analyzed to determine the polymorphic amino acids, genetic distances, and isoelectric points, hydrophobicity plot, and protein modeling of various proteins. We propose that the most devastating pandemic strains may have full-length PB1-F2 protein with unique residues, highly cleavable HA, and a basic NS1. Any newly emerging strain should be compared with these three strains, so that resources can be directed appropriately.

Development of an early warning algorithm to detect sick broilers

The frequent occurrence of poultry diseases, such as bird flu, not only causes huge economic losses to farmers but also seriously threatens the health of human beings. Providing early warnings of new poultry disease outbreaks is essential in poultry breeding. With the rise of digital image processing technology and machine learning algorithms, real-time monitoring of poultry health status through cameras is an effective way to prevent large-scale outbreaks of disease. To analyze the postures of healthy and sick broilers, bird flu virus was inoculated intranasally into healthy broilers manually. The broilers were then placed in isolator cages for comparative experiments. The methods of observing the posture changes of broilers and extracting the key features are used to realize the automatic classification of healthy and sick broilers. In this research, broiler images are obtained, and two kinds of segmentation algorithms are proposed to separate the broilers from the background to obtain the outlines and skeleton information of the broilers. According to the preset feature extraction algorithm, the posture features of healthy and sick chickens are extracted, the eigenvectors are established, the postures of the broilers are analyzed by machine learning algorithms, and the diseased broilers are predicted. A series of experiments have been done. Data for each feature acquired by the algorithms are analyzed, and the effect of each feature on the recognition accuracy is obtained. Using some of the features proposed in this research, accuracy rates of 84.248%, 60.531% and 91.504% are obtained, but using all the features can yield an accuracy rate of 99.469%. Then, the recognition effects of several commonly used machine learning algorithms are compared. The Support Vector Machine (SVM) model obtains an accuracy rate of 99.469% on the test samples, which is superior to those of the other machine learning algorithms. The experimental results show that the algorithms proposed in this research can effectively separate broilers from the background, extract the posture information of broilers, and accurately and quickly identify the health status of broilers by means of SVM. The algorithms for digital image processing and machine learning are evaluated in the diagnosis of broiler health status and show high accuracy, good stability and good generalization performance, and can give early warning signals. This research can provide a reference for the intelligent identification of broiler health status in the future.

Life scientists’ views and perspectives on the regulation of dual-use research of concern

In the early 2000s, several publications initiated a debate about the potential misuse of academic life science research. The debate was refueled in 2012, when two studies describing the engineering of human transmissive H5N1 bird flu virus were published. To facilitate the debate on dual-use research of concern (DURC) and regulatory measures, we interviewed life science researchers working in Switzerland about their views on DURC. The results indicate that all scientists interviewed were aware of the debate, however, few had reflected about dual-use aspects with regard to their own work. Although all respondents believed in freedom of research, a majority was supportive of some form of regulation of DURC. This article discusses the major implications of the study, especially regarding the implementation of regulatory measures. In addition, preliminary recommendations are given for raising awareness on DURC in the life sciences among researchers.

Impact of delivery method on antiviral activity of phosphodiester, phosphorothioate, and phosphoryl guanidine oligonucleotides in MDCK cells infected with H5N1 bird flu virus

Impact of delivery method on antiviral activity of phosphodiester, phosphorothioate, and phosphoryl guanidine oligonucleotides in MDCK cells infected with H5N1 bird flu virus

Knowledge Justice: An Opportunity for Counter-expertise in Security vs. Science Debates

ABSTRACTKnowledge justice provides a conceptual framework to apply principles of social justice in environments of competing interests regarding science. Both knowledge and its making can be seen as a good to be distributed, including all voices for whom the science will matter. In this framework, knowledge production is shared among a broader constituency of knowers representing both local and cosmopolitan voices. The problem of knowledge injustice can be seen in the U.S. government’s recent attempt to secure scientific knowledge about H5N1 or avian bird flu virus. The censorship produced a global debate between scientists and policy-makers over how to balance the nation-state’s desire for security with the life science’s tradition of open and shared research. This conundrum, known as the dual-use dilemma, obscures larger questions that lie outside of expert-centered domains—namely the concerns of many communities in the Global South struggling with the impact of the virus in their daily lives. An example of such counter-expertise is that of the backyard poultry farmer whose ways of knowing are foreign to science and policy experts who frame the ways in which knowledge about H5N1 should be developed, controlled, and used. While the H5N1 debate illuminated competing positions regarding knowledge production between powerful elites, it ignored the social justice inequities produced by the dual-use dilemma. The concept of knowledge justice provides a way of thinking about science that can include locally situated counter-expertise, disrupting the dual-use dilemma produced by competing dominant priorities of security and public health.

One world, one health: combating infectious diseases in the age of globalization.

There has been a resurgence of the H7N9 bird-flu virus in China since last winter, resulting in over 460 human infections—the largest number since the first outbreak in 2013—raising serious concerns about its further spread and the effectiveness of existing anti-viral drugs. This is just the latest example of the increasing threat from emerging infectious diseases. Due to a combination of factors related to farming practices, human behaviour, international travel, globalization and climate change, there has been a succession of such pandemics in recent years, such as Severe Acute Respiration Syndrome (SARS), Nipah, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Ebola and Zika, posing an unprecedented challenge to scientists and health workers worldwide.In a forum organized by National Science Review at the World Life Science Conference last November, an international panel of scientists discussed the lessons that have learned from a string of pandemics in recent years, the importance of international collaboration and sharing research benefits more equitably, why there is an urgent need to move towards the one-health approach, and how China could play a leading role in the global effort to combat infectious diseases. Gregory Gray Duke University, USA; Duke Kunshan University, China; Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore Linfa Wang Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore Peter Horby Center for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, University of Oxford, UK Fujie Zhang Capital Medical University, Beijing Titan Hospital, China Malik Peiris University of Hong Kong, China George Fu Gao Deputy Director General of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention; Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Synthesis and Characterization of Fullero-C60 α-Amino Acids with Antiviral Properties

New functionalized fullero-C60 amino acids were synthesized as the free acids and sodium salts N-C60(H)6[Gly-ONa]6∙10H2O (1), N,N-C60(H)8[L-Lys-ONa]4∙10H2O (2), composite N,N-C60 *(H)5[(Gly*-ONa)3(L-Lys-ONa)2] ∙10H2O (3), and composite N,N-C60 *(H)7[(Gly*-ONa)3(L-Asp*-ONa)2-L-Arg-ONa] ∙10H2O (4). Their antiviral activities against virus A/H5N1 were studied in vitro in PEKC cell culture. It was shown that the synthesized compounds as the sodium salts were capable of suppressing replication of A/H5N1 bird-flu virus. Compound 4 had the greatest antiviral activity.

Antimicrobial resistance a threat to public health

Antimicrobial resistance is a complex issue and is a threat to public health globally. While emerging and re-emerging diseases have captured news headlines with outbreaks such SARS, bird flu, Ebola and Zika virus around the world, leading health experts tells us that there is a more serious threat to public health – antimicrobial resistance (AMR)1.

Sorption of Flu Viruses from Aqueous Media by Composites of Electrically Conducting Polymers: Polyaniline and Polypyrrole

Composites of polymers with conjugated chain structures, polyaniline and polypyrrole, are used as sorbents for human and bird flu viruses. Sorption properties of the composites are compared to characteristics of the initial polymers. It is shown that polymer composites containing metallic silver nanoparticles possess sorption activity, similarly to their composites with polyethylene and the initial polyaniline and polypyrrole. The introduction of silver into polypyrrole resulted in an enhancement of the sorption activity as compared to that of the initial polymer. Nontoxic metal—polymer composites reduce considerably the concentrations of human flu viruses A(H1N1), A(H3N2), and B and bird flu virus A(H5N2) with different structures of surface virion proteins in aqueous media at a sorbent concentration of 10–20 mg/mL in the temperature range from +4 to 37°C.

Analisis Bau Limbah Perternakan Ayam di Pemukiman Terhadap Gangguan Psikosomatik Masyarakat Sekitar Kandang di Desa Sei Lembu Makmur

Abstract: The number of boiler chicken farm located in the community felt starting to annoy people, especially the chicken farm located close to residential areas. Many people complained about the bad effects of the operations of the boiler chicken farm because there are many farmers who ignore the handling of waste of effort. The impact that can arise is the smell of chicken farms, the emergence of flies and fears spread of bird flu virus. The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between the sewage smell chicken farm on the incidence of psychosomatic symptoms in a residential community surrounding villages cage Sei Lembu Makmur 2014. The design of this study analytic observational, cross-sectional study approach. This research was conducted in the month of January to August 2014. The sample in this study that people around the cage which amounts to 43 respondents. Data was collected through questionnaires and a doctor's diagnosis. Data were analyzed using univariate and bivariate analysis were processed using the computerized system and Lambda test. The results showed that respondents ammonia contaminated and uncontaminated 21 people 22 people (51.2 %), which has a disturbing perception as many as 23 people (53.5 %) and did not interfere with 20 people (46.5 %) and respondents who had psychosomatic disorders is 13 people (30.2 %) and not psychosomatic 30 people (69.8%) .Based Lambda test showed that there was no relationship between the concentration of ammonia with psychosomatic disorders in settlements around the cage Sei Lembu Makmur (p = 1.000> 0.05) and there was no relationship between perception and psychosomatic disorders in the settlements around the cage Sei Lembu Makmur (p = 0.462> 0.05). For the people around the cage explain to the public that air pollution by ammonia due to the smell of the chicken coop with the highest ammonia concentration of 3.32 ppm which means no influence posed to human health.

The Study of Natural Solution Protective Activity on H7N9 Virus

Background: One of potentially dangerous problems for a human organism is the new strain of a virus of bird flu-A/H7N9. As it is regular mutation of bird flu virus, it obvious, that of antibacterial preparations is not efficient. Efficiency decreases when the number of agents with multiple stability to antimicrobic remedy vastly increases, the part of associate infections enlarges, and aggression of opportunistic pathogenic flora rises. This reduces the role of the preparations in prevention of epidemics. Therefore, the optimization of only etiotropic therapies does not fully solve the problem. In this connection natural preparations seem extremely promising which strengthen the functional condition of immune system and, thereby, activate protective forces of macroorganism. Objectives: One of such preparations is BAE Synergy Liquid, a natural mineral water which was underwent subtle energetic changes at the natural energetic deposit. Design: An estimation of protective efficiency of naturally modified mineral BAE SL water was performed on white outbred mice-males in models of H7N9 virus. The animals were monitored during 16 days after infection, and survived and fallen mice were counted daily. Results: The results revealed significant effect of the investigated preparation as possible prophylactic care and medical remedy to the mentioned virus. This means that one can be considered as potential effective remedy for human. Conclusions: As significant effect of the immune system resistance was revealed, the experimental model with studied naturally modified mineral water is potentially generalizable.

Infectious diseases: Here comes a new bird flu virus

Infectious diseases: Here comes a new bird flu virus