Scientists discover new bird flu virus ‘worse than H7N9’
Hong Kong team finds new H7 flu strain in chickens in southeast China
Hong Kong scientists studying the H7N9 bird flu virus said they had discovered another H7-type virus lurking in chickens in China.
Dubbed H7N7, the virus was able to infect mammals in a lab experiment, said the team, warning H7 viruses "may pose threats beyond the current outbreak".
The continuing prevalence of H7 viruses in poultry could lead to the generation of highly pathogenic variants and further sporadic human infections
"The continuing prevalence of H7 viruses in poultry could lead to the generation of highly pathogenic variants and further sporadic human infections," they wrote in the journal Nature .
"If (we) let this H7N7 continue circulating in chickens, I am sure that human infection cases will occur," study co-author Guan Yi from the University of Hong Kong said.
"This virus could cause more severe infection than ... H7N9, based on our animal experiment," he said.
H7N7 spreads easily in birds. It caused one human death and more than 80 cases of mild disease in the Netherlands in 2003.
For the new study, researchers led by Maria Huachen Zhu and Guan took the H7N7 virus they had found in poultry and tested it on ferrets in the lab. The animals, considered a good human model, developed severe pneumonia, suggesting the virus is potentially also infectious for us.