Mutant strains of common human influenza viruses have been discovered for the first time in dogs, raising concerns that such viruses could begin to spread easily among pets and evolve into dangerous new strains that revert to humans. .
Xu Xu, a virologist at Nanjing Agricultural University, and his colleagues identified two dogs in southern China with different variants of the influenza C virus.
The researchers sequenced the genes of these strains and found that the mutations affected structures near the part that binds to the host’s cells. These changes mean “may be better reproducibility in dogs,” says Michael Veit, a biochemist at the Free University of Berlin and a co-author of the new study. If you have the flu in your pet dog, he can pass the virus on, and the infection usually stops. But certain mutations in the newly discovered strains suggest they are likely to spread from dog to dog, Veit says.
Most adults already have influenza C, but they may have little immunity to new strains that mutate in animals and then return to humans, researchers say. Regarding the letter published in Journal of Infectionscientists explain the findings and show that the virus needs to be tracked more fully in dogs and other pets through regular testing and sequencing.Cornell University, not involved in the study animal virologist Colin Parrish says he “definitely supports” that.
“We have ignored dogs and cats as potential reservoirs or intermediate hosts,” he says. Although there is no formal pet virus surveillance program in the United States, Parrish’s research group regularly screens dogs for new respiratory viruses.
Two influenza viruses are known to circulate among dogs worldwide. One jumped from a horse, the other from a bird. In southern China, there are also reports of dogs spreading influenza strains from pigs, suggesting that the region may be an unusual hotspot for canine viruses.
It is too early to tell whether dog-borne influenza C will be a problem. More research is needed to confirm the spread of the virus among these animals. But researchers say it and other viruses need to be closely monitored to catch new strains of the disease. Parrish says.
Janet Daly, a virologist at the University of Nottingham, says kennels and similar places where viruses can easily spread and evolve are a good place to start. “If you’re raising or rearing animals at high densities, you need to look there,” she says.
