Treyfish
Moderator
<TABLE id=texttable><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD class=almost_half_cell>23/08/2009 - 13:41
EDUARDO GERAQUE
Folha de S. Paulo
The poor penguin is thoroughly hooked. Then have a swab stuck in your trachea and the cloaca by another researcher insensitive material in search of work. But worse than the method is the diagnosis: in the middle of Antarctica, the penguin is the flu virus.
"We have the first evidence that influenza is circulating among penguins in Antarctica," says Edison Durigon, University of Sao Paulo. One of the main virologists in the country, Durigon coordinates a group of hunters of dangerous viruses that monitors birds and mammals from the Amazon to the subpolar islands.
His new data, not yet submitted to the scientific community, indicate that the presence of influenza in this region is high. "Between 8% and 10%" in a study population of one hundred animals, says the scientist. Normally, in other communities of birds have analyzed from the icy continent, the occurrence of the same virus usually rotate around 1%.
In theory, penguins with the flu virus in Antarctica should not be cause for concern, even when Brazil is in the midst of a pandemic of H1N1 influenza that has killed over 400 humans. These birds, after all, are confined to the Southern Ocean - unlike the penguins of the Argentine coast, which migrate to Brazil every year and who had screened positive for the virus.
To complete, none of Antarctic penguins "gripes" studied by the USP group had symptoms of the disease.
The problem is that the human population in Antarctica only increases, both because of the scientists and due to the growth of tourism in the region. Only in the summer of 2008 / 2009, almost 40 thousand tourists visited the continent, according to data from IAATO (International Association of Tour Operators in Antarctica).
This, coupled with the fact that different strains of influenza like to swap genes between them - which sometimes take more aggressive virus - riding a potentially harmful scenario, possibly transforming the Antarctic on a nest of viruses and in another region that deserve increased attention from international monitoring of influenza virus.
Who went to whom?
The data now emerging from the study of Adelie penguins in Papua and goatee, the most common species on the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula - where the Brazilians do searches - create questions in the minds of virologists.
The first question is where the virus came. According to Jansen Allen, a research group Durigon, the studies conducted so far do not allow us to say with certainty who is passing the virus to whom, or what type of influenza in circulation (if the seasonal human or avian H5N1).
The creeks, penguins live alongside migratory birds such as skuas and giant petrels - and the analysis of their feces were also positive for influenza - as well as mammals such as elephant seals and sea lions.
The question to be answered now is complex.
Are seabirds - the giant petrels, for example, migrate thousands of miles in a year - leading the virus to other parts of the world to Antarctica, and thus pass them on to penguins? Or are the tourists and scientists?
Whatever the case, say the researchers, a yellow light comes on. Like humans, penguins live in settlements: their nests usually have tens of thousands of birds, fertile ground for the spread of viruses.
"We must remember that there is always cold, which helps the survival of the virus," says Durigon. The close contact between birds and mammals may help in the gestation of a really dangerous virus in the future.
In the Spanish flu, for example, in 1918, an estimated 50 million people have died because of an H1N1 virus that came from birds to humans. The problem then, is that the micro-organism was being transmitted directly among humans, which has not yet occurred, for example, the avian flu. :tiphat:
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=submitcell>
http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/ciencia/ult306u613636.shtml</TD><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
EDUARDO GERAQUE
Folha de S. Paulo
The poor penguin is thoroughly hooked. Then have a swab stuck in your trachea and the cloaca by another researcher insensitive material in search of work. But worse than the method is the diagnosis: in the middle of Antarctica, the penguin is the flu virus.
"We have the first evidence that influenza is circulating among penguins in Antarctica," says Edison Durigon, University of Sao Paulo. One of the main virologists in the country, Durigon coordinates a group of hunters of dangerous viruses that monitors birds and mammals from the Amazon to the subpolar islands.
His new data, not yet submitted to the scientific community, indicate that the presence of influenza in this region is high. "Between 8% and 10%" in a study population of one hundred animals, says the scientist. Normally, in other communities of birds have analyzed from the icy continent, the occurrence of the same virus usually rotate around 1%.
In theory, penguins with the flu virus in Antarctica should not be cause for concern, even when Brazil is in the midst of a pandemic of H1N1 influenza that has killed over 400 humans. These birds, after all, are confined to the Southern Ocean - unlike the penguins of the Argentine coast, which migrate to Brazil every year and who had screened positive for the virus.
To complete, none of Antarctic penguins "gripes" studied by the USP group had symptoms of the disease.
The problem is that the human population in Antarctica only increases, both because of the scientists and due to the growth of tourism in the region. Only in the summer of 2008 / 2009, almost 40 thousand tourists visited the continent, according to data from IAATO (International Association of Tour Operators in Antarctica).
This, coupled with the fact that different strains of influenza like to swap genes between them - which sometimes take more aggressive virus - riding a potentially harmful scenario, possibly transforming the Antarctic on a nest of viruses and in another region that deserve increased attention from international monitoring of influenza virus.
Who went to whom?
The data now emerging from the study of Adelie penguins in Papua and goatee, the most common species on the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula - where the Brazilians do searches - create questions in the minds of virologists.
The first question is where the virus came. According to Jansen Allen, a research group Durigon, the studies conducted so far do not allow us to say with certainty who is passing the virus to whom, or what type of influenza in circulation (if the seasonal human or avian H5N1).
The creeks, penguins live alongside migratory birds such as skuas and giant petrels - and the analysis of their feces were also positive for influenza - as well as mammals such as elephant seals and sea lions.
The question to be answered now is complex.
Are seabirds - the giant petrels, for example, migrate thousands of miles in a year - leading the virus to other parts of the world to Antarctica, and thus pass them on to penguins? Or are the tourists and scientists?
Whatever the case, say the researchers, a yellow light comes on. Like humans, penguins live in settlements: their nests usually have tens of thousands of birds, fertile ground for the spread of viruses.
"We must remember that there is always cold, which helps the survival of the virus," says Durigon. The close contact between birds and mammals may help in the gestation of a really dangerous virus in the future.
In the Spanish flu, for example, in 1918, an estimated 50 million people have died because of an H1N1 virus that came from birds to humans. The problem then, is that the micro-organism was being transmitted directly among humans, which has not yet occurred, for example, the avian flu. :tiphat:
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=submitcell>
http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/ciencia/ult306u613636.shtml</TD><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
