Bird Flu
Bird flu detected in cow in Netherlands for first time outside US
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The bird flu virus H5N1 has been detected for the first time outside the US in a cow in the Netherlands. Antibodies against the pathogen were found in the milk of the animal on a farm in the province of Friesland. The Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut in Greifswald confirms that no such case was previously known worldwide.
A Hong Kong poultry stall in Sha Tin’s Wo Che Market was suspended for disinfection after an environmental sample tested positive for the H9 bird flu virus. A two-year-old boy had contracted H9N2 after visiting the market, though shoppers said they were not worried.
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Scientists from the universities of Cambridge and Glasgow have shown why many bird flu viruses can keep replicating at fever-like temperatures that typically curb human flu. A study in Science identifies the viral PB1 gene as crucial to this heat tolerance, raising concerns about pandemic risks if such genes move into human strains.