Mary Wilson
Well-known member
Older lab studies showed flu viruses like H5N1 can spread through unusual routes, but may have been overlooked
Posted: May 25, 2024 3:00 AM CDT | Last Updated: May 25
Lauren Pelley · CBC News ·
When U.S. dairy cows began falling ill with a dangerous form of bird flu, many scientists were struck by an unusual pattern: The virus kept showing up in cows' udders, of all places.
Influenza is usually known as a respiratory virus, entering the body through the throat and nose before heading to the lungs. But Canadian virologist Alyson Kelvin wasn't among those shocked by the udder discovery.
"We've known that the cow mammary gland is susceptible to influenza virus infections since at least the '50s," said Kelvin, a longtime influenza researcher who works at the University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization. "So this isn't that surprising."
Indeed, decades of scientific study provided early clues that something like this was possible.
Even though 2024 marked the first time H5N1, a form of influenza A, was reported in dairy cows, researchers knew influenza viruses can target the cells that make up mammary glands.
The little-understood transmission pathway may have also played a role in two human infections linked to the current U.S. outbreak — both of which only involved eye infections, possibly from the virus entering the eye membranes through contaminated milk.
"I think if we paid more attention to [these possibilities]," Kelvin said, "we might have not been so surprised." ...
Yet decades earlier, researchers from Canada's department of agriculture were conducting "preliminary" experiments on lactating dairy cows to see what would happen when the animals were infected with several types of viruses.
Their 1953 paper showed that a type of human influenza A could infect cows' mammary glands, leading to live virus in milk secretions. ...
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/bird...prise.-,Canadian research has seen it coming since%201953,that%20make%20up%20mammary%20glands.
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NOTE: The studies mentioned in the above article, I have posted in the FluTrackers Scientific Library.
Preliminary Experiments Relating to the Propagation of Viruses in the Bovine Mammary Gland - NIH
https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum...on-of-viruses-in-the-bovine-mammary-gland-nih
Influenza Transmission in the Mother-Infant Dyad Leads to Severe Disease, Mammary Gland Infection, and Pathogenesis by Regulating Host Responses - PLOS Pathogens
https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum...s-by-regulating-host-responses-plos-pathogens
Infection and Replication of Influenza Virus at the Ocular Surface - ASM: Journal of Virology
https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum...at-the-ocular-surface-asm-journal-of-virology
Posted: May 25, 2024 3:00 AM CDT | Last Updated: May 25
Lauren Pelley · CBC News ·
When U.S. dairy cows began falling ill with a dangerous form of bird flu, many scientists were struck by an unusual pattern: The virus kept showing up in cows' udders, of all places.
Influenza is usually known as a respiratory virus, entering the body through the throat and nose before heading to the lungs. But Canadian virologist Alyson Kelvin wasn't among those shocked by the udder discovery.
"We've known that the cow mammary gland is susceptible to influenza virus infections since at least the '50s," said Kelvin, a longtime influenza researcher who works at the University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization. "So this isn't that surprising."
Indeed, decades of scientific study provided early clues that something like this was possible.
Even though 2024 marked the first time H5N1, a form of influenza A, was reported in dairy cows, researchers knew influenza viruses can target the cells that make up mammary glands.
The little-understood transmission pathway may have also played a role in two human infections linked to the current U.S. outbreak — both of which only involved eye infections, possibly from the virus entering the eye membranes through contaminated milk.
"I think if we paid more attention to [these possibilities]," Kelvin said, "we might have not been so surprised." ...
Yet decades earlier, researchers from Canada's department of agriculture were conducting "preliminary" experiments on lactating dairy cows to see what would happen when the animals were infected with several types of viruses.
Their 1953 paper showed that a type of human influenza A could infect cows' mammary glands, leading to live virus in milk secretions. ...
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/bird...prise.-,Canadian research has seen it coming since%201953,that%20make%20up%20mammary%20glands.
_______________________________________________________________________________
NOTE: The studies mentioned in the above article, I have posted in the FluTrackers Scientific Library.
Preliminary Experiments Relating to the Propagation of Viruses in the Bovine Mammary Gland - NIH
https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum...on-of-viruses-in-the-bovine-mammary-gland-nih
Influenza Transmission in the Mother-Infant Dyad Leads to Severe Disease, Mammary Gland Infection, and Pathogenesis by Regulating Host Responses - PLOS Pathogens
https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum...s-by-regulating-host-responses-plos-pathogens
Infection and Replication of Influenza Virus at the Ocular Surface - ASM: Journal of Virology
https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum...at-the-ocular-surface-asm-journal-of-virology