"American Academy of Sciences" issued a document called, discovered a herd of swine flu virus G4 -
authors: old virus, do not panic
Swine flu virus is an important zoonotic pathogen. A few days ago, the Proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences published a research paper of the Chinese scientific research team online. The co-corresponding authors of the paper are Professor Liu Jinhua of the College of Veterinary Medicine of China Agricultural University and Academician Gao Fu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The paper said that a swine influenza virus, a type G4 virus, that could cause a pandemic was found in the herd. The news caused widespread concern.
Will this swine flu virus cause a pandemic? "There is no need to panic. The virus is not new. It has been in pigs for many years, and no G4 virus has formed an epidemic of human-to-human transmission." Liu Jinhua said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from Science and Technology Daily. "So far, no virus has been found. The occurrence of clustered disease on the farm staff indicates that the virus presents only a limited transient infection to humans, and has not yet formed an effective ability to break through the interspecies barrier to infect people."
Appeared in 2013 and gradually became popular among pigs
Regarding the question of "Is this new influenza virus dangerous?" Liu Jinhua said: "It should be noted that the G4 influenza virus reported in the research is not a new virus. This virus has appeared as early as 2013. We Through continuous tracking and monitoring, it was found that this type of virus gradually became prevalent in pigs."
The prevalence of the G4 virus in swine herds increases the chance of human exposure to or infection with the virus. The paper points out that some pig farmers have detected antibodies. "But this is just a serum monitoring data, not the G4 virus was isolated from the staff of these farms, and because the population is infected with seasonal influenza virus or vaccinated with influenza, it will bring about the effect of some antibody cross-reaction, so it is true The value of infection should be lower than the value of serum monitoring." Liu Jinhua said.
The study also found that compared with the traditional G1 virus in swine herds, most of the internal genes of the G4 swine influenza virus are derived from the pdm/09 H1N1 influenza virus, so this G4 virus may easily infect people through adaptive mutation.
Compared with the new coronavirus, Liu Jinhua explained that the G4 virus is very different from it. "The new coronavirus is a new virus that humans have never faced before. People have little understanding of the characteristics of the new coronavirus, especially the pathogenic mechanism and immune mechanism." He said.
Research on vaccines and diagnostic kits is currently underway
No one can accurately judge the time of the next influenza pandemic, but we should always be alert to the occurrence and epidemic of influenza.
"From the perspective of public health security, the threat of G4 influenza virus exists, so we need to arouse our vigilance." Liu Jinhua said.
Influenza virus is a zoonotic infectious disease. Mastering the prevalence of the virus in animal hosts has important guiding significance for the prevention and control of the prevalence among viral animals and cross-infected people.
The outbreak of H1N1 influenza in 2009 not only caused severe economic losses to the global swine industry, but also endangered human public health and safety. After 2009, multiple research teams at home and abroad found that the pdm/09 H1N1 influenza virus circulating in humans was transmitted back to the herd and has undergone genetic rearrangement with the swine influenza virus circulating in the herd, and some rearranged viruses appeared to infect humans. event.
"In terms of influenza, influenza is a common pathogen of people, and seasonal influenza epidemics occur almost every winter and spring. Especially since the first pandemic flu occurred in 1918, people have accumulated four experiences in the fight against pandemic influenza. Not only there are vaccines, but also specific drugs, and more importantly, there is a good surveillance network. Once the new influenza virus is epidemic, it will be detected immediately. The human influenza vaccine production technology is also very mature and can be developed quickly." Liu Jinhua said.
In the past ten years, the research team of Liu Jinhua has continued to carry out the investigation of swine influenza virus. "Our team has not only carried out continuous monitoring of influenza viruses in the herd and to study the virus characteristics, but at the same time, in order to prevent and control the occurrence of epidemics in the herd, the research on vaccines and diagnostic kits is also underway." Liu Jinhua revealed.