A canine influenza virus is likely to infect humans. Several scientists support this. The virus comes from a type of bird flu called H3N2which first infected dogs around 2006 and now It has evolved into a mammalian-adapted form of avian influenza.
Evidence shows that bird flu cannot be transmitted from person to person. However, experts have always feared that this could change as the virus has been able to establish itself in a mammalian species, which in turn it could be transmitted between mammals, including humans.
Studies of 4,000 dogs at the China Agricultural University examined the risks of spreading the strain. Bird flu experts have found that the virus was “more capable” Of “recognize human cell receptors and replicate in human cells“.
According to the results published in the scientific journal eLife: “Our results indicated that dogs may serve as intermediates for the adaptation of avian influenza viruses to humans.”.
Six dogs were deliberately infected from known strains of canine influenza H3N2, but each of them developed “just a little bit unwell”with symptoms including fever, sneezing and coughing.
The professor James Woodhead of veterinary medicine at the University of Cambridge he told the Independent: “The changes in the canine virus apparently make it more suitable for transmission within mammals, as would be expected after such a long period in dogs.”
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