• FluTrackers.com Inc. does not provide medical advice. Information on this web site is collected from various internet resources, and the FluTrackers board of directors makes no warranty to the safety, efficacy, correctness or completeness of the information posted on this site by any author or poster. The information collated here is for instructional and/or discussion purposes only and is NOT intended to diagnose or treat any disease, illness, or other medical condition. Every individual reader or poster should seek advice from their personal physician/healthcare practitioner before considering or using any interventions that are discussed on this website. By continuing to access this website you agree to consult your personal physican before using any interventions posted on this website, and you agree to hold harmless FluTrackers.com Inc., the board of directors, the members, and all authors and posters for any effects from use of any medication, supplement, vitamin or other substance, device, intervention, etc. mentioned in posts on this website, or other internet venues referenced in posts on this website.
  • We are not asking for any donations. Do not donate to any entity who says they are raising funds for us.

New Study Finds Wild Pikas Are Natural Mammalian Hosts To H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus

Treyfish

Treyfish

Moderator


ScienceDaily (Aug. 25, 2009) ? For the first time a new study suggests that when exposed in their natural ecosystem, wild pikas (a species closely related to rabbits) are mammalian hosts of H5N1 subtype avian influenza viruses and may also be a source of transmission to domestic mammals and humans.
The researchers from China report their findings in the September 2009 issue of the Journal of Virology.
Wild birds are the known natural reservoirs for the H5N1 subtype avian influenza virus, however, researchers are unsure of their role in the spread of the virus to other free-ranging wild mammals within their natural habitats. Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza viruses are now endemic in bird populations throughout Southeast Asia and 391 human cases, of which 60% were fatal, have been reported since 2003. Although human-to-human transmission has yet to occur, H5N1 viruses pose a serious public heath threat.

In the study researchers traced the circulation of the H5N1 virus in wild pikas and confirmed a natural H5N1 virus infection in their native environment. Genetic testing of the H5N1 virus isolated in pikas revealed two distinct evolutionary groups, a mixed/Vietnam H5N1 virus sublineage (MV-like pika virus) and a wild bird Qinghai-like H5N1 sublineage (QH-like pika virus).
Further analysis of the MV-like pika virus found it to be the same as goose H5N1 virus. When tested in mice the MV-like pika virus was nonpathogenic, however, the QH-like pika virus was highly pathogenic in mice. Finally, in an attempt to recreate the virus infection of pikas, rabbits were intranasally vaccinated with the H5N1 virus of pika origin resulting in infection.
"Our findings first demonstrate that wild pikas are mammalian hosts exposed to H5N1 subtype avian influenza viruses in the natural ecosystem and also imply a potential transmission of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus from wild mammals into domestic mammalian hosts and humans," say the researchers.
<HR>Journal reference:
 
Re: New Study Finds Wild Pikas Are Natural Mammalian Hosts To H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus

Perhaps the press republished it to warn the public. ;)

.
 
Re: New Study Finds Wild Pikas Are Natural Mammalian Hosts To H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus

Nothing wrong with repetition of important information.

It seems interesting because the H5N1 is found in a mammalian host.

This could mean the virus could have adapted itself to mammals, including humans?
 
Re: New Study Finds Wild Pikas Are Natural Mammalian Hosts To H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus

Good point.

Reading a little about the American pika, they mention that the substrains developed because climate warming has forced pikas to live at high altitudes - where they stay and don't mix. Those same mountain tops may be occupied by migratory birds carrying H5N1. Two higher- elevation birds that come to mind that summer in Alaska, but winter in H5N1 endemic areas are the Arctic Warbler and Northern Wheatear. They would mix with birds headed to the Western US for the winter - sharing the mountains with Pikas.

.
 
Re: New Study Finds Wild Pikas Are Natural Mammalian Hosts To H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus

There are rabbits in Indonesia.
 
Re: New Study Finds Wild Pikas Are Natural Mammalian Hosts To H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus

maybe it's B2P2P2B2H

Researching their range, I discovered they're in the mountains behind my home. :)

Their global range:

pika-map1.jpg

http://www.cryptomundo.com/wp-content/uploads/pika-map1.jpg

.
 
Re: New Study Finds Wild Pikas Are Natural Mammalian Hosts To H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus

All you ever wanted to know about Pikas - http://www.pikaworks.com/pikas/index.html

Code: 
Places Pikas Live  


Afghanistan
Armenia
Bhutan
Burma
Canada
China
Himalayas 

 India
Iran
Japan
Kirghizistan
Mongolia
Mt. Everest
Nepal
 North Korea
Pakistan
Pamirs
Russia
Tadjikistan
Tibetan Plateau
United States
 
Re: New Study Finds Wild Pikas Are Natural Mammalian Hosts To H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus

gsgs said:
are they saying it goes pika2pika2...2pika(...2bird) ?

any pikas in Indonesia ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pika
Click to expand...

Northern Pikas eat dead birds. specifically, bird brains!

See: http://www.taiga.net/yourYukon/col105.html

(snipped)

Clinging to steep tiny meadows near the tops of the nunataks, these tiny mammals also have a most un-pika-like diet. Since favourite foods like willows and sedges are in short supply, they have learned to expand their menu; they still eat plants, but they also eat dead birds -- brains and all.

During spring and fall, storms blow migrating songbirds onto the icefields where they often die on the glaciers. The stocky little pikas scurry onto the glaciers and collect the dead birds, just as they collect alpine plants for drying.

"It's like manna from heaven that flies in every year," says David Hik, an ecology professor at the University of Toronto who has studied the pikas for several seasons. "Sometimes they even stack the birds like cordwood in their haypiles."

"We know that the pikas are eating the brains of the birds because of the neat little holes chewed in the back of their heads. Most animals, when they eat a carcass, will go for the guts and the brains. They're high in fat and proteins, and they're easily digestible."
Click to expand...

.
 
Re: New Study Finds Wild Pikas Are Natural Mammalian Hosts To H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus

sounds like birds2pika2stop

do the sampling times and the dead-bird-times coincide ?

how would it go pika2pika , respiratory ? They are sniffling at
other pikas ? eating other dead pikas ?
 
Re: New Study Finds Wild Pikas Are Natural Mammalian Hosts To H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus

They are highly socialized and live in large "haystacks."

They eat plants that other herbivores won't and they eat their own poop! That is how it can unquestionably go P2P.

I believe only the Alaskan and Yukon (Canada) Pika's eat dead birds.

.
 
Re: New Study Finds Wild Pikas Are Natural Mammalian Hosts To H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus

A Pika picture!

pika.jpg
 
Re: New Study Finds Wild Pikas Are Natural Mammalian Hosts To H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus

you mean, they eat other pika's poop ?

What about Hamsters ? Guinea Pigs ?
 
Re: New Study Finds Wild Pikas Are Natural Mammalian Hosts To H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus

I thought we had a lot of Pika discussion here?

Researchers should have been looking at them ever since the Qinghai migratory bird die-off, imo.

Qinghai’s alpine meadows are the home of the Plateau Pika. They build live in burrows instead of making haypiles.
[snip]
...As a result, this species has been poisoned extensively. In Qinghai Province alone, pikas have been poisoned over 80,000 mi2 (200,000 km2), and the onslaught continues. Unfortunately, loss of the plateau pika over vast expanses of the Tibetan Plateau has resulted in a loss of many native species that rely on the pika. Most endemic native birds nest only in pika burrows, and when these collapse following poisoning, the birds disappear.

Most predators on the plateau (weasels, ferrets, Pallas's cat, Tibetan fox, wolf, brown bear, upland buzzard, saker falcon, and black-eared kite) rely almost exclusively on pikas in their diet. When the pikas are poisoned, these animals also disappear. Thus, it appears that the plateau pika is a keystone species for biodiversity on the plateau and should be managed accordingly. Fortunately, as of 2002, the tide has been turning toward a policy that embraces the pika rather than one bent on destruction of the species.

http://www.answers.com/topic/plateau-pika
 
Re: New Study Finds Wild Pikas Are Natural Mammalian Hosts To H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus

Maybe it was the saker falcon mention that stayed in my mind and I was doing idle speculation.

This older link talks about the falconry sector and I remembered they eat pikas. http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86755&highlight=saker+falcon

And then Niman said:
The clade 2.2.3 sequences (in falcons and throughout Europe in 2007/2008) trace back to the wild bird outbreak at Uvs Lake in 2006.
Click to expand...

And I remembered this thread about sick falcons and wondered if any Qinghai sakers were ever captured and imported. http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21939&highlight=saker+falcon
 
Re: New Study Finds Wild Pikas Are Natural Mammalian Hosts To H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus

It seems to me that ever since the Qinghai swan H5N1 die-off of 2005 that an international body should have narrowly defined its sole purpose to be that of widely collecting fecal/cloacal samples of wild birds and contiguous animal/mammalian species in order to discover the natural reservoirs of H5N1 and other bird flu viruses, and to report back to WHO, CDC and the science media experts. At least we'd now know which other mammals are also reservoirs, and the extent of the pikas carrying H5N1.

IMHO...Pikas and swine (both wild and domesticated) and other mammals need a much more thorough testing and assessment to determine how widely distributed H5N1-postive samples are, and then conduct sequencing to determine the evolutionary changes occurring so that experts like Niman and GSGS can assess the data for the benefit of us all.

That pikas may eat carrion in Canada, or their own poop in China, each supposedly would share burrows with mating nesting birds whose own poop would also be a means of transmission bird-to-mammal, and then once it became adapted to mammals like pikas, it has all the better chance of passing itself on to other mammals.
Are there any official organizations collecting info to determine how widespread pika H5N1 reservoir has become?
 
Re: New Study Finds Wild Pikas Are Natural Mammalian Hosts To H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus

Welcome Roehl.

There is a Pika fan club in Japan, but I don't now if they collect that type of data. I believe they just like them!

.
 
Re: New Study Finds Wild Pikas Are Natural Mammalian Hosts To H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus

I think they are fans of this type of pika
nds_pokemon_ranger_pika.jpg

:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top