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The H7N7 in Seal epidemic of 1979-1980

Mingus

Mingus

Well-known member
I dedicated this thread to collect data, history & analysys about the H7N7 in Seal epidemic of 1979-1980.

I realised today there is very few information others than scientific article about that event. In fact the event may not have been known very much outside of some virologist circles.

This happen before the internet so the historical documents are...well... where are they ????

The event have been related some time here in FT but no thread is dedicated exclusively to that.

I beleive this event represent the only known take where a HPAI ( highly pathogenic avian virus) made the step to a mammalian species.
It may shed a light on how could evolve the now massively spread H5N1.

Mingus
 
Re: The H7N7 in Seal epidemic of 1979-1980

<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td>
1: Arch Virol. 1981;68(3-4):189-95.</td> <td align="right">Related Articles,<script language="JavaScript1.2"> <!-- var PopUpMenu2_LocalConfig_jsmenu3Config = [ ["ShowCloseIcon","yes"], ["Help","window.open('/entrez/query/static/popup.html','Links_Help','resizable=no,scrollbars=yes,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no,alwaysRaised=no,depend=no,width=400,height=500');"], ["TitleText"," Links "] ] var jsmenu3Config = [ ["UseLocalConfig","jsmenu3Config","",""] ] //--> </script> <script language="JavaScript1.2"> <!-- var Menu6168245 = [ ["UseLocalConfig","jsmenu3Config","",""], ["Cited in PMC","window.top.location='http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/tocrender.fcgi?action=cited&tool=pubmed&pubmedid=6168245'","",""], ["Books","window.top.location='http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=pubmed_Abstract&cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=6168245&dopt=Books'","",""], ["LinkOut","window.top.location='http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=pubmed_Abstract&cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=6168245&dopt=ExternalLink'","",""] ] //--> </script> Links </td> </tr></tbody></table></dt><dd>
[SIZE=+1]Isolation of an influenza A virus from seals.[/SIZE]

Lang G, Gagnon A, Geraci JR.

Influenza A virus of serotype Hav1 Neq1 (H7N7 by the 1980 revised influenza typing system proposed by WHO experts) was repeatedly isolated from lung and brain tissues taken from harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) found suffering from pneumonia on Cape Cod Peninsula (U.S.A.) in the winter of 1979-1980. The seal isolates, although of a serotype identical to some fowl plaque virus strains, were harmless to chickens and turkeys in transmission experiments. An earlier human infection by a Hav1 Neq1 influenza virus and the serologic relatedness of this avian serotype with the equine 1 serotype are cited in support of the view that influenza viruses with these antigenic characteristics seem to have a facility to pass from birds to mammals.

PMID: 6168245 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]</dd></dl>
 
Re: The H7N7 in Seal epidemic of 1979-1980

Please if someone have full access to the article feel free to post the link to the complete PDF article.

____________________________________________________

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/215/4536/1129


articles

Mass mortality of harbor seals: pneumonia associated with influenza A virus

<nobr> Geraci JR,</nobr> <nobr>DJ St Aubin,</nobr> <nobr>IK Barker,</nobr> <nobr>RG Webster,</nobr> <nobr>VS Hinshaw,</nobr> <nobr>WJ Bean,</nobr> <nobr>HL Ruhnke,</nobr> <nobr>JH Prescott,</nobr> <nobr>G Early,</nobr> <nobr>AS Baker,</nobr> <nobr>S Madoff,</nobr> and <nobr>RT Schooley</nobr>
<!-- null --> More than 400 harbor seals, most of them immature, died along the New England coast between December 1979 and October 1980 of acute pneumonia associated with influenza virus, A/Seal/Mass/1/180 (H7N7). The virus has avian characteristics, replicates principally in mammals, and causes mild respiratory disease in experimentally infected seals. Concurrent infection with a previously undescribed mycoplasma or adverse environmental conditions may have triggered the epizootic. The similarities between this epizootic and other seal mortalities in the past suggest that these events may be linked by common biological and environmental factors.
[*]Abstract
[*]
References
[*]
Full Text (PDF)
[/list]
 
Re: The H7N7 in Seal epidemic of 1979-1980

http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=249560
J Virol. 1990 July; 64(7): 3297?3303.
Copyright notice
Generation of seal influenza virus variants pathogenic for chickens, because of hemagglutinin cleavage site changes.
S Q Li, M Orlich, and R Rott
Institut f?r Virologie, Justus-Liebig-Universit?t Giessen, Federal Republic of Germany.

(...)

Influenza virus A/seal/Mass/1/80 (seal virus, H7N7) was first isolated when approximatively 20% of the harbor seal polulation on the New England coast of the United States died in 1979-1980 because of acute hemprrhagic pneumonia. The virus was antigenically characterized as H7N7 serotype, similar to some naturally occuring avian influenza viruses.
Click to expand...


20% that's pretty much but this others article have an other version ... 5% wich is pretty much more like the 1918 CFR.

View attachment H7 article.bmp
View attachment H7N7.bmp
 
Re: The H7N7 in Seal epidemic of 1979-1980

What is the real story ???

Can we understand that the epidemic begun in the cape cod harbor where it did 20% CFR and spread all around NewEngland where it did a general 5%CFR.

Many article claim that the virus haved not the highly pathogenic cleavage site but haved still the ability to revert to a highly pathogenic cleavage site by serial passage in eggs cells.

The most related stain found was an avian strain with a highly pathogenic cleavage site.

Can we beleive that the virus massively kill the seals in the first harbors then quickly loose his highly cleavage site then spread in a 1918 like (avian -to-mammals without reassortment & 5%CFR ) epidemic around New England coast ?

Drawn like that, it give us a more encouraging story, I think. (to be continued)



 
Re: The H7N7 in Seal epidemic of 1979-1980

Not meaning to change the topic away from seals, but these flu-killed whales were found in the same area....

BEACHED WHALES HAD FLU INFECTION

UPI
Published: December 25, 1986

Scientists seeking to explain why a pod of pilot whales beached themselves and died on Cape Cod this month have found that 14 of them were infected with an unidentified flu virus.

''This is the first recording of a large-scale influenza outbreak in stranded whales,'' Mimi Simpson of the New England Aquarium in Boston said Tuesday. ''We have had isolated cases before, but nothing of this scale.''

Preliminary tests, conducted at St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., showed that 14 of 16 lung samples from the 28 whales that died after the Dec. 3 beaching were infected with the unidentified flu virus, Ms. Simpson said.

But she stressed that the flu virus is only one of many theories scientists are considering to explain the beachings.

''It's a new factor that's involved, but it's just too early for us to tell how it affected the whales,'' she said. ''We don't know how sick they were.''

The afflicted pilot whales, weighing up to three tons, were found along a 20-mile stretch of beach in Eastham, on Cape Cod Bay, the same place that more than 500 harbor seals died of a flu virus in 1979 and 1980, according to Ms. Simpson.

Another Theory Is Cited

''The correlation is there,'' she said. ''We haven't isolated the virus. We know it's a flu virus, but we don't know which one. But we don't think it is the same virus the seals had.''

She said the whales' virus might have been spread by bird droppings.

Another theory scientists are considering to explain the beaching is that pregnant or nursing female whales were drawn into the bay in search of food for themselves or their calves, became confused and were trapped by the peninsula's tricky geography.

''We're not just trying to figure out why they get stranded, but why they don't fare too well after they get pushed back,'' Ms. Simpson said.

Scientists will conduct further tests on tissue samples from the afflicted whales to determine what type of virus they had and ''just how sick they actually were,'' she said.

Two pods of pilot whales have beached themselves on the shores off Eastham this month. Thirty-seven whales died in the second beaching.

A 600-pound baby whale rescued from the second beaching appeared healthy Tuesday, but experts said it was too early to know if he would survive.

.
 
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Re: The H7N7 in Seal epidemic of 1979-1980

I cannot convert this from .pdf, but it is interesting as it covers seals, whales, and people. They mention that northern peoples hunting marine mammals are in danger of getting AI fom the meat. The AI in Canadian arctic seals was: H7N7, then H5N5, then H4N6, then H3N3, and were of avian origin. Bering Sea seals showed exposure to H1, H3, H4, & H12. A dual infection of pilot whales (H13N2 and H13N9) showed it was closely related to AI from gulls. South Pacific whales have shown exposure to H1.

Seroprevalence is ringed seals was higher and more widespread.

see http://www.jwildlifedis.org/cgi/reprint/37/4/820.pdf

.
 
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Re: The H7N7 in Seal epidemic of 1979-1980

AlaskaDenise said:
I cannot convert this from .pdf, but it is interesting as it covers seals, whales, and people. They mention that northern peoples hunting marine mammals are in danger of getting AI fom the meat. The AI in Canadian arctic seals was: H7N7, then H5N5, then H4N6, then H3N3, and were of avian origin. Bering Sea seals showes exposure to H1, H3, H4, & H12. A dual infection of pilot whales (H13N2 and H13N9) showed it was closely related to AI from gulls. South Pacific whales have shown exposure to H1.

Seroprevalence is ringed seals was higher and more widespread.

see http://www.jwildlifedis.org/cgi/reprint/37/4/820.pdf

.
Click to expand...




Serologic Evidence of Influenza A Infection in Marine Mammals of
Arctic Canada



​




Ole Nielsen, ​
Alfonso Clavijo,and John A. Boughen


from: Journal of Wildlife Diseases, ​
37(4), 2001, pp. 820?825​



​



Here is the Abstract:


ABSTRACT: A serologic survey of influenza A
antibodies was undertaken on 1,611 blood samples
from five species of marine mammals collected
from Arctic Canada from 1984?98. Sampling
was done in 24 locations throughout the
Canadian Arctic encompassing Sachs Harbor
(72N, 125W), Northwest Territories in the
west to Loks Land (63N, 64W), Nunavut in
the east, to Eureka (80N, 86W), Nunavut in
the north to Sanikiluaq (56N, 79W), Nunavut
in the south. A competitive ELISA using a
monoclonal antibody (Mab) against influenza A
nucleoprotein (NP) was used. Five of 418
(1.2%) belugas (Delphinapterus leucas) and 23
of 903 (2.5%) ringed seals (Phoca hispida) were
serologically positive. None of the 210 walruses
(Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus), 76 narwhals
(Monodon monoceros) and four bowhead
whales (Balaena mysticetus) had detectable antibodies
to influenza A. Positive belugas were
identified from communities on southeast Baffin
Island while positive ringed seals came from
communities in the eastern, western and high
Arctic. Virus isolation attempts on lung tissue
from a seropositive beluga were unsuccessful.
We believe that influenza A infection in marine
mammals is sporadic, the infection is probably
self-limiting, and it may not be able to be maintained
in these animals. Although the predominant
hemagglutinin (H) type was not determined
and therefore the pathogenicity of the
strains to humans is unknown, the hunting and
consumption of marine mammals by the Inuit
may put them at risk for influenza A infection.
Key words: Competitive ELISA, influenza
A, marine mammals, serologic survey, zoonotic
infection.
 
Re: The H7N7 in Seal epidemic of 1979-1980

interesting. so besides artic ice, circulating flu in marine mammals might be a reservoir? seagulls and other avian marine scavengers might prove an interesting link in that if there is a cycle.

either that, or we really, really need to start testing fish.
 
Re: The H7N7 in Seal epidemic of 1979-1980

LMonty said:
interesting. so besides artic ice, circulating flu in marine mammals might be a reservoir? seagulls and other avian marine scavengers might prove an interesting link in that if there is a cycle.

either that, or we really, really need to start testing fish.
Click to expand...

Yes there is something there.
And I think also there is a link between the H7N7 in seal outbreak then the later virus spread in whales & others mammals.

It migh also have some link with the emergence of the new H3N8 dog's flu.
see that travel log in a niman way for a perticular polymorphism
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=40575&postcount=3

Some strains have the habit of collecting mammalians polymorphism and the range of species infected by flu seem to widen while time pass.
 
Re: The H7N7 in Seal epidemic of 1979-1980

http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:gPG3s0-tKUcJ:wildlife1.usask.ca/Publications/Marine_Parasites/CCWHC%2520Mar%2520Mam%2520pub%252085_93.pdf+seal+epidemic+influenza&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=6

Influenza in marine mammalsL The most important occurrence of influenza in marinemammals was an epidemic of Influenza A in harbourseals off the coast of New England in 1980. Theseanimals had severe pneumonia due to both influenzaand a Mycoplasma infection.L Since that time, other Influenza A viruses have beenisolated from harbour seals, a pilot whale, and a minke
whale, and an Influenza B virus has been isolated froma harbour seal. The viruses found in marine mammalsare most closely related to those in birds.L Antibodies to influenza have been detected in beluga and ringed seals from the Canadian Arctic
Click to expand...
 
Re: The H7N7 in Seal epidemic of 1979-1980

Antibodies to influenza have been detected in beluga and ringed seals from the Canadian Arctic
Click to expand...
Has anyone harvested those antibodies?

This is an endangered animal, but perhaps ONE death for science would be acceptable.

.
 
Re: The H7N7 in Seal epidemic of 1979-1980

Denise, it sounds like someone must be as they were found in at least one specimen. One hopes they were smart enough to keep the antibodies.
Does anyone else find it staggering to learn the number of creatures capable of harboring the disease? You have to hand it to the influenza virus for its success. Short of fish and reptiles, is there anything larger than microscopic life it cannot infect?
 
Re: The H7N7 in Seal epidemic of 1979-1980

Shannon said:
........Does anyone else find it staggering to learn the number of creatures capable of harboring the disease? You have to hand it to the influenza virus for its success. Short of fish and reptiles, is there anything larger than microscopic life it cannot infect?
Click to expand...

Yes, I find the range of hosts staggering. I also find it completely intimidating that something so small can outsmart larger creatures who think they are so smart.

If anyone hasn't yet read about the mimivirus, it is similarly interesting. http://www.discover.com/issues/mar-06/cover/
.....Viruses, long thought to be biology's hitchhikers, turn out to have been biology's formative force.
Click to expand...

.
 
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