Researchers sequence western H5N1 virus genomes

In a paper in the May issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, an international team of researchers report the first ever large-scale sequencing of western genomes of the deadly avian influenza virus, H5N1. Their study of 36 genomes of the virus collected from wild birds in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMA), and Vietnam confirms not only that the virus has very recently spread west from Asia, but that two of the new western strains have already independently combined, or “reassorted,” to create a new strain. Several samples also contained the mutation associated with the form of the “bird flu” that caused several human deaths in 2006. It is the virus’s ability to rapidly mutate into a pathogen that may eventually be passed between humans that concerns health officials about a worldwide pandemic of H5N1 influenza.... Whole article: "http://www.physorg.com":[ http://www.physorg.com]

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