Otago University virologist Dr Jemma Geoghegan. Photo / Supplied
The unfold of H5N1 fowl flu in a rising listing of nations and species is “definitely cause for concern”, says a virologist finishing up sampling in New Zealand.
UN officers have described avian influenza virus, which has killed tens of tens of millions of poultry since 2020, and unfold to 23 nations, as a “significant public health concern”.
Scientists have been shocked at H5N1′s capability to leap to different species, with greater than a dozen herds of dairy cows within the US thought to have been contaminated by way of publicity to wild birds.
World Health Organisation chief scientist Dr Jeremy Farrar stated the “great concern” was the virus would develop the flexibility to contaminate people – and in the end unfold between us.
So far, that hasn’t occurred – however the case fatality price among the many a number of hundred individuals who have caught it, estimated at simply over 50 per cent, is worryingly excessive.
Farrar cautioned vaccine growth was not “where we need to be”, and never all of the world’s public well being companies had functionality to diagnose it.
New Zealand is but to report a case, and officers have suggested our dairy trade the nation’s isolation has made the danger of untamed birds bringing it right here low.
The Ministry for Primary Industries had systems in place to stop it arriving right here by means of different pathways, and to detect any suspected instances early.
Otago University virologist Dr Jemma Geoghegan stated whereas the danger to people was nonetheless low nowadays, “there’s definitely cause for concern that there are so many different mammalian hosts getting infected”.
“There’s been an enormous growth on the host vary of even mammalian spillovers, which is like nothing I’ve seen earlier than.”
The extra typically that occurred, she stated, the extra alternative the virus needed to evolve.
“The rapidity of which [the spread of the virus] has happened is quite outstanding, so it’s definitely something we need to be better prepared for.”
Geoghegan and ESR scientist Dr David Winter have been gathering samples from locations plentiful with sea, shore and water birds, together with “flyway” websites the place birds usually enter the nation.
Meanwhile, a new study co-authored by Geoghegan has revealed New Zealand’s native long-tailed and lesser short-tailed bats harbour a shocking variety of viruses, regardless of residing in isolation for tens of millions of years.
The research, which sampled bat droppings, additionally discovered each species had the identical kind of coronavirus – which means the virus had jumped from one to the opposite within the recent previous.
“While we know that viruses can jump to new hosts and cause disease outbreaks, it is usually between closely related hosts,” Geoghegan stated.
“Since New Zealand isn’t home to too many terrestrial mammals, particularly any that live in large population densities and near these bats’ habitats, the risk for spillover is low.
“Knowing about these viruses and monitoring their evolution and diversity, especially if any changes to the bat population occurs such as home range and habitat, can allow us to be better prepared for future disease outbreaks.”
Jamie Morton is a specialist in science and environmental reporting. He joined the Herald in 2011 and writes about every thing from conservation and local weather change to pure hazards and new know-how.
