Avian Influenza News and Research

RSS

Avian influenza is an infection caused by avian (bird) influenza (flu) viruses. These influenza viruses occur naturally among birds. Wild birds worldwide carry the viruses in their intestines, but usually do not get sick from them. However, avian influenza is very contagious among birds and can make some domesticated birds, including chickens, ducks, and turkeys, very sick and kill them.

COVID-19 vaccination may be stemming evolution of “fitter” SARS-CoV-2 variants

Researchers in the United States and India have presented the first known evidence that the rollout of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination is restricting the evolutionary and immune escape pathways accessible to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

6 Jul 2021

Renowned scientists recover deleted SARS-CoV-2 data from Wuhan

Renowned evolutionary researcher, Jesse Bloom from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has conducted a phylogenetic analysis suggesting that the early severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequences that were obtained from the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China, are not fully representative of the viruses circulating in the city at the time of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak.

24 Jun 2021

POSTECH research team develops plant-based, adjuvant-free avian influenza vaccine

The avian influenza, an acute viral infectious disease that occurs in poultry such as chickens, ducks, and migratory birds, has been reported to be transmittable to humans.

21 Jun 2021

Rapidly evolving SARS-Cov-2 strains may give rise to escape variants

The number of COVID-19 variants is growing rapidly, so much that the scale and scope of mutation may pose a threat to the continuing successful use of the current vaccines and therapies.

16 Jun 2021

First human case of H10N3 influenza reported in Jiangsu, China

As the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic continues to spread and wreak havoc globally, another health threat emerged in China. The country has reported its first confirmed case of the rare H10N3 bird flu in a patient admitted to the hospital in April 2021 in Zhenjiang, China.

4 Jun 2021

Zoonotic and vector-borne emerging tropical diseases pose a constant threat

A recent article published in the journal Frontiers in Tropical Diseases assessed the threat of emerging zoonotic and vector-borne tropical diseases.

26 May 2021

New panel launched to address the emergence and spread of zoonotic diseases

International organizations have come together to launch a new One Health High-Level Expert Panel to improve understanding of how diseases with the potential to trigger pandemics, emerge and spread.

20 May 2021

Plant-derived compound isorhamnetin may have antiviral potential against SARS-CoV-2

The lack of new or repurposed drugs to treat patients with severe or critical COVID-19 has been one of the biggest hurdles to reducing mortality rates in the ongoing pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. A new study describes the potential for the use of the plant molecule isorhamnetin in the management of this virus.

19 Apr 2021

Researchers examine the evolutionary race between SARS-CoV-2 and human defenses

Researchers have analyzed this evolution of the virus based on evolutionary ecology theory. Using the virus genomes available in the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID) database, the researchers focused their inquiry on mutations in the receptor-binding domain (RBD) on the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2.

30 Mar 2021

Preventing future pandemics by ending the wildlife trade

In this News-Medical interview, we spoke to Professor Diana Bell about the illegal wildlife trade and how we could prevent future pandemics by stopping it.

22 Mar 2021

UK SARS-CoV-2 variant 40% more transmissible than previous strains

Researchers in Japan have estimated that the B.1.1.7 strain of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that recently emerged in England is 40% more transmissible than strains previously circulating in the country.

18 Mar 2021

Genome-wide covariation analysis sheds light on the evolution of SARS-CoV-2

Researchers in the United States have computed genome-wide covariation within severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to investigate interactions that could be of considerable importance in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

10 Mar 2021

Substrain of SARS-CoV-2 variant in UK may resist antibody neutralization

Researchers at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw have identified a substrain of the recently emerged B.1.1.7 variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that may confer resistance to antibody neutralization.

10 Feb 2021

SARS-CoV-2 variants appear to arise independently of local transmission

Researchers at the University of Michigan in the United States have cautioned against only using within-host minor genetic variations to resolve the genomic epidemiology of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the agent that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

21 Jan 2021

How effective are masks in preventing SARS-CoV-2 transmission?

Can face masks protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection? Faruque Ahmad, MD, recently explored the role of face masks in mitigating the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2.

11 Jan 2021

Scientists detect a sarbecovirus phylogenetically related to SARS-CoV-2 from bats in Japan

A team of researchers at the University of Tokyo in Japan have detected a sarbecovirus, called Rc-o319, which is phylogenetically positioned in the same clade as SARS-CoV-2 in Rhinolophus cornutus bats in Japan.

2 Dec 2020

Nucleic acid-hydrolyzing scFv 3D8 exhibits potent antiviral effects on SARS-CoV-2

3D8, a 27-kDa recombinant antibody fragment, was found in autoimmune-prone Murphy Roths Large mice. The single-chain variable fragment (scFv) has the nucleic acid hydrolyzing activity and is shown to degrade DNA or mRNA of viruses in infected cells.

30 Nov 2020

Hydrogen therapy may help severely ill COVID-19 patients

Researchers from the Department of Critical Care Medicine, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Chengdu in China, have explored the possibility of using hydrogen therapy on severely ill COVID-19 patients. The team published their study's findings, titled "Hydrogen: A Potential New Adjuvant Therapy for COVID-19 Patients," in the latest issue of the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology.

17 Nov 2020

Xylitol and grapefruit seed extract nasal spray could help COVID-19 patients

United States based researchers have published a report exploring the potential role of Xylitol and Grapefruit seed extract (in the form of a nasal spray) in treating COVID-19.

16 Nov 2020

Study shows SARS-CoV-2 uses a receptor to efficiently infect human cells

To efficiently infect human cells, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is able to use a receptor called Neuropilin-1, which is very abundant in many human tissues including the respiratory tract, blood vessels and neurons.

21 Oct 2020