![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/fears-of-new-pandemic-as-humans-vulnerable-to-new-mutant-virus-found-in-china/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/0_CHINA-HEALTH-FLU-H7N9.jpg&description=Using laboratory ferrets and mice, researchers from China and the UK found that humans could be "vulnerable" to infection from the H3N8 strain of bird flu at "epidemic or pandemic proportions" Scientists have expressed fears over the emergence of another pandemic amid the outbreak of a new strain of bird flu discovered in Chinese poultry farms. A team of researchers from China and the UK studied a sample of H3N8, which is one of the most common strains in birds but little is known about how it is transmitted to humans. Using laboratory ferrets and mice, they found that humans could be "vulnerable to infection at epidemic or pandemic proportions". Paper co-author Professor Jinhua Liu, of the China Agricultural University in Beijing, said: "Importantly, we discovered that the virus had acquired human receptor binding preference and amino acid substitution PB2-E627K, which are necessary for airborne transmission. "Human populations, even when vaccinated against human H3N2 virus, appear immunologically naive to emerging mammalian-adapted H3N8 avian influenza viruses and could be vulnerable to infection at epidemic or pandemic proportions. Acid resistance of influenza virus is also an important barrier for avian influenza virus to overcome to acquire the adaptability and transmissibility in new mammals of humans. 'The current novel H3N8 virus has not acquired the acid resistance yet. So, we should pay attention to the change in acid resistance of the novel H3N8 virus." It also found that the virus could be passed between animals through respiratory droplets. Professor Kin-Chow Chang, of the University of Nottingham, added: "We demonstrate that an avian H3N8 virus isolated from a patient with severe pneumonia replicated effectively in human bronchial and lung epithelial cells [which line the airways and make mucus]." The virus was "extremely harmful in its effects in laboratory mammalian hosts and could be passed on through respiratory droplets", added Prof Chang, who car){kind=link}
Using laboratory ferrets and mice, researchers from China and the UK found that humans could be “vulnerable” to infection from the H3N8 strain of bird flu at “epidemic or pandemic proportions”
Scientists have expressed fears over the emergence of another pandemic amid the outbreak of a new strain of bird flu discovered in Chinese poultry farms.
A team of researchers from China and the UK studied a sample of H3N8, which is one of the most common strains in birds but little is known about how it is transmitted to humans. Using laboratory ferrets and mice, they found that humans could be “vulnerable to infection at epidemic or pandemic proportions”.
Paper co-author Professor Jinhua Liu, of the China Agricultural University in Beijing, said: “Importantly, we discovered that the virus had acquired human receptor binding preference and amino acid substitution PB2-E627K, which are necessary for airborne transmission.
“Human populations, even when vaccinated against human H3N2 virus, appear immunologically naive to emerging mammalian-adapted H3N8 avian influenza viruses and could be vulnerable to infection at epidemic or pandemic proportions. Acid resistance of influenza virus is also an important barrier for avian influenza virus to overcome to acquire the adaptability and transmissibility in new mammals of humans.