Bird Flu Virus born New Species

[Shiloh]

Source: http://erabaru.net/nasional/50-jakar...ies-virus-baru

Flu Burung Lahirkan Spesies Virus Baru
Era Baru News Senin, 01 Februari 2010

Bird Flu Virus born New Species
New Era News monday, 01 Februari 2010

burungDenpasar flu - Professor of Udayana University, Prof. Dr. I Gusti Ngurah drh Mahardika Kade asserted, the circulation of avian influenza in poultry in the long run lead to the emergence of a new group of viruses that are genetically very different.

"It was a result of research conducted during the last two years," said a well Mahardika Biomedics and Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (FKH) Udayana University in Denpasar on Monday (01/02).

He said the difference is genetically far enough to reach 8.7 percent compared with the original virus.

"Isolates, isolates were found in a large chicken farm which generally has been vaccinated," said Mahardika, alumnus of S-2 and S-3 a higher education institution in Germany.

Origin of these viruses introduced since 2003, and previous studies concluded, all of Indonesia bird flu evolved from a single introduction.

The condition was predicted to come from a domestic poultry in southern China, which in turn has reached endemic conditions and developed into a group.

Mahardika added, genertik groups A, B and C are typical in each island, all at the Pulai bersikulasi Java.

But the final findings show that recent isolates, isolates vary significantly with group A, B and C, although still clearly evolved from a virus group A.

In addition to mutation, a new virus that also has a deletion of codons that have not been revealed before.

Incidence of mutations and deletions are signyal appearance of the virus with the potential capacity to jump the species barrier and can be transmitted easily between humans, said Mahardika. (Ant / waa)

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Bird Flu Virus born New Species

A bit off topic: Mahardika recently was inaugurated as a professor of Virology at Udayana University in Bali on saturday januari 23rd.

Apparently the bird flu virus in Indonesia has changed, so vaccines are not effective anymore. The Indonesian strains are very virulent he says.

(The "deletions" mentioned in the previous report seem to be related to virulence).

He talks about developing a trivalent bird flu vaccine through reverse genetics. But there is still "a very long and winding road".

You can read his oration through google translation machine here:

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=nl&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http://www.balebengong.net/kabar-anyar/2010/01/24/indonesia-perlu-lembaga-pengendali-penyakit.html&sl=id&tl=en

[gsgs]

Re: Bird Flu Virus born New Species

indicates that it evolves entirely in poultry or mammals and no
wild birds are involved.

This could be demonstrated and better understood by releasing
the sequences for the
inner segments 1,2,3,5,7,8 , which _cannot_ be used to produce
vaccine against H5N1 by rich countries which Indonesia can't afford.
Segment 4 (HA) is needed for vaccines but following the
evolution and assessing the risk and better understanding the virus
can also be done with other segments.

[Shiloh]

Re: Bird Flu Virus born New Species

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/...accines/356376

February 02, 2010
Emmy Fitri & Dessy Sagita

Mutated H5N1 Virus Raises Doubts About the Effectiveness of Flu Vaccines

A genetically mutated avian flu virus is believed to be behind a string of deadly outbreaks in bird populations over the past two years, a scientist said on Tuesday, warning that the new virus had the potential to be more lethal than its ancestor should it infect humans.

Virologist I Gusti Ngurah Mahardhika said the government?s vaccination program with a large number of poultry farms in the past few years may backfire because the mutation was partly suspected to have been caused by an outdated vaccine.

?I have strong evidence that the old vaccine seed [already developed by the country?s vaccine makers] cannot stop the new virus,? said Mahardhika, who is also head of the Biomedical and Molecular Biology Laboratory at the Udayana University?s Veterinary Medicine School.

He said isolated virus samples taken from already vaccinated farms in Java, Sumatra, Bali and Sulawesi from 2008 to 2009 were compared with samples from their ancestor H5N1 virus taken from Legok, Banten, in 2003.

?From the study, we found genetic differences of up to 8.7 percent from the ancestor virus,? he said.

The Legok virus is still being used by most vaccine producers here as the vaccine seed and the recent mutations may mean the seed virus is outdated.

The genetic differences in the virus samples are mostly represented by changes in the acid composition, or RNA [ribonucleic acid], which ?have never been found before [in the 2003 virus samples].?

Genetic mutations, according to Mahardhika, could be triggered by either natural causes or vaccine resistance.

In the case of samples he studied, Mahardhika said the changes pointed more to the possibility of vaccine resistance rather than natural causes.

?Flu viruses are highly mutagenic and their RNA structure can quite easily undergo changes, or a deletion. The vaccine also has a masking effect whereby it only provokes immunity in the birds? respiratory systems although the virus can still be found in the bird?s saliva. So now we can see a seemingly healthy chicken but its droppings and saliva are full of this virus,? he said.

The most recent viral outbreak in poultry populations was reported on Monday from Pekanbaru where thousands of chickens died in several villages. In one of the villages in Indragiri Hulu, two toddlers ? aged three years and six months old ? are suspected of having been infected.

A Web site jointly developed by Surabaya?s Airlangga University and Kobe University in Japan, www.birdflucorner.wordpress.com, reported that the two neighboring toddlers had had a history of contact with dead chickens.

Indonesia has been the hardest hit by the spread of avian flu, both in humans and poultry. The first outbreaks in bird populations were reported in 2003 with the virus spreading to humans two years later. At least 125 people have died of this bird flu.

So far, human infections can only result from direct contact with dead fowls and there is no scientific evidence that the virus is able to transmit from human to human although suspicions were raised after a few cluster cases were found in which a number of members from the same family had became infected. Simple hygienic practices such as hand washing help prevent infections.

Microbiology clinic professor with the University of Indonesia, Amin Soebandrio, concurred with Mahardhika?s findings, saying he had suspected that such changes would come.

?Research has also been carried out by my students on a similar issue using only 2004 virus samples. And genetic changes are apparent.?

Amin said further study must be done to check whether the changes directly affect the resistance of the virus to the vaccine being used by the government.

?We need to see whether the changes increase the capacity of the virus to infect the human respiratory system,? he said. ?If that?s the case, it?s more than likely the virus will also be resistant to the antiviral we are now using to treat patients with avian influenza.?

Tjandra Yoga Aditama, the director general of disease monitoring at the Ministry of Health said the public should not worry too much about these findings because it did not mean a new virus had been created.

?Viruses always have the potential to mutate ? that?s common in nature ? but these studies don?t meant we?ve found a new strain of virus,? he said.

Memed Zoelkarnain, spokesman for the National Commission for Avian Influenza and Pandemic Prevention, said the findings must be studied further in a bid not to scare people and called on the media to be sensible when reporting on this issue given the findings are preliminary.

?We don?t want to frighten the public,? he said.

Memed, also a veterinary doctor, said Mahardhika should double check with ?all vaccine makers? because there was more than one vaccine maker in the country but only a few of them used the 2003 vaccine seed.

[gsgs]

Re: Bird Flu Virus born New Species

8.7% in what ? HA ? amino acids ?

usually you get 0.3% per year in the genome, 2.1% in 7 years

a bit more for HA, but not 8.7%


he must mean amino-acid mutations in HA or HA1 or antigenic sites only

the vaccine should still help a bit



I remember the chickens in Egypt with 10 nonsynonymous mutations
in HA in short time

[Commonground]

Re: Bird Flu Virus born New Species

We will be following the Jakara Globe, and I retract my opinion, spoken here:

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=335903&postcount=26

Post #4:

February 02, 2010
Emmy Fitri & Dessy Sagita

Indonesian billionaire takes on the Jakarta Post
By Peter Gelling
Published: Sunday, January 18, 2009

JAKARTA — That it is probably the worst time in history to start a daily newspaper is not, at least for the moment, on the minds of the people behind The Jakarta Globe.

The Globe, an English-language paper that hit the newsstands in November, is an unusual sight in this era of the shrinking - or disappearing - newspaper: It is a 48-page broadsheet, big enough to cover your desk when unfolded and painted head to toe in color.

The paper is backed by the billionaire James Riady, deputy chairman of the powerful Lippo Group and one of the wealthiest people in Indonesia, with interests including real estate, banking and retail.

Riady is also a budding media mogul. He owns the Indonesian business magazine Globe and is developing a Web portal and a cable television news channel.

"I think they are serious about creating a media empire, becoming the Rupert Murdoch of South East Asia," said Lin Neumann, The Globe's chief editor.

The Globe, which has a print run of 40,000, will be going up against The Jakarta Post, which celebrated 25 years this year and has survived numerous attempts to unseat it over the past decade. It also survived the Asian financial crisis in 1998, which obliterated half a dozen other English-language publications.

This time, however, those behind The Post, which also has a print run of about 40,000, are nervous. Both papers are sold on newsstands and in hotels and restaurants, in addition to having home subscribers, and both seek the same audience - the country's rising middle class.

"They are spending lavishly," said Endy Bayuni, The Post's chief editor. "They are full-color, they run prestigious syndicated columns. But the question is about sustainability: How long is Riady willing to spend all this money? At the end of the day, they have to be commercially viable."

The newspaper business in Jakarta and throughout the country is fiercely competitive for both English and Indonesian papers. The relaxation of media restrictions after the fall of the country's longtime authoritarian ruler, Suharto, in 1998 has led to a boom in smaller, nondaily publications, but major dailies have struggled because the market is so small and has not grown at all in at least two decades.

"I don't think the market is big enough for two English-language dailies," said Yopi Hidayat, editor of Kompas, one of the largest dailies in Indonesia. "There have been so many other English newspapers launched in the last three or four years that have failed because they couldn't break into the market, which has long been controlled by The Post."

Kompas itself has had virtually the same circulation, 500,000, for the past 25 years, serving only a tiny fraction of the country's 240 million people. Total circulation for all the daily newspapers in the entire country totals only six million, according to the Indonesian Newspaper Association.

Neither The Post nor The Globe would discuss advertising revenue or circulation figures. Bayuni said The Globe had not yet cut into The Post's circulation.

The papers' editors, however, both pointed to Bangkok as an example of a market that has been able to sustain two English-language broadsheets, although Bangkok is a much bigger market than Jakarta. Both said they would aim at the growing Indonesian middle class - a group that is increasingly learning, working and reading in English. More than half of The Post's readers are Indonesian, as opposed to expatriate, and The Globe, recognizing this trend, is betting on the local population to increase its market share.

"English proficiency here is growing and there is a higher level of sophistication," Neumann said. "Indonesians are using English more now than ever and so we believe there is a market for both papers."

The two papers are fighting over journalists as well as readers. Finding experienced, English-speaking local journalists is not always easy here and the competition for them is high. The papers, however, are taking different approaches.

The Globe has put together a team of about 60 Indonesian reporters, recruiting from wire services like Agence France-Presse and Reuters. One of its deputy editors is Bhimanto Suwastoyo, who worked for AFP for more than 20 years and is widely considered one of the best local journalists.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/business/worldbusiness/18iht-globe.1.19448566.html?_r=1