New coronavirus can infect cells from multiple species

Lisa Schnirring  Staff Writer

Dec 11, 2012 (CIDRAP News) – Experiments on the novel coronavirus that has infected patients from three Middle Eastern countries show that the receptor it uses to infect human cells is different from the one used by its relative the SARS virus and that it can infect cells from a range of animals, according to a study released today.

Both findings have implications for public health, as experts rush to assess the threat and develop tools to battle the emerging virus, which has so far led infected at least 9 people, causing 5 deaths, in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Jordan. The study was conducted by researchers from Germany and the Netherlands and appears today in mBio, the online journal of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM).

The virus, called hCoV-EMC, has been linked to two illness clusters, including one that involved healthcare workers at a Jordanian hospital. All of the patients with confirmed infections had pneumonia, and several had severe renal complications.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said recently that though the case clusters raise the possibility of human-to-human transmission, so far there is too little information to confirm or rule it out. Regardless, concerns about transmission risk have prompted intensive monitoring of close contacts of case-patients and reminders about steps to protect healthcare workers.

Christian Drosten, MD, lead author 

of the study and director of the Institute of Virology at the University of Bonn Medical Centre in Germany, said in an ASM press release today, "This virus is closely related to the SARS virus, and looking at the clinical picture, it causes the same pattern of disease."

One question the research team wanted to explore was whether the hCoV-EMC and SARS viruses use the same receptor to enter human cells. The SARS virus uses the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor, which is mainly found on pneumocytes deep in human lungs. Drosten said individuals needed to inhale great numbers of SARS viruses for enough to reach deep into the lungs and take root, a factor that limited its spread mainly to healthcare workers and people who lived in overcrowded housing in Hong Kong.

The researchers found that hCoV-EMC clearly does not use ACE2, Drosten said in the press release But the virus could use another, still-unknown receptor in human lungs that is easier to access and could make the virus more infectious than SARS, he added.

In the second part of the study, the group conducted a set of experiments to shed light on how the virus might have originated and moved between humans and animals. Genetic sequencing of an hCoV-EMC sample from a Saudi man who died in June showed that the virus most closely resembles coronaviruses found in bats. Some of the patients with confirmed infections had visited farms before they got sick.

Drosten said the SARS virus changed after it jumped from bats to civets to humans, rendering it unable to infect bats again. However, he said researchers were surprised to see that hCoV-EMC can infect cells from many different species. The group found that it could enter cells from four major bat families, pigs, and primates. "It's completely unusual for any coronavirus to be able to do that—to go back to its original reservoir," he said.

The team reported that the findings suggests all the animals could share a common receptor, and if the receptor is present on mucosal surfaces such as the lining of the lung, the virus could pass back and forth between animals and humans, making it difficult or even impossible to eliminate.

Drosten said his lab is still trying to identify the hCoV-EMC receptor and that more work on the virus is under way at many other hospitals and labs.

Kathryn Holmes, PhD, professor emerita in the University of Colorado School of Medicine's Department of Microbiology, told CIDRAP News that the group's findings are exciting news. She is a coronavirus expert whose work has focused on characterizing receptors for several coronaviruses.

She said there are several different receptor proteins for coronaviruses and it will be interesting to see what the receptor or receptors are for the new coronavirus. It's not possible, she added, to predict the receptor solely from the genetic sequence of the virus' spike protein, the glycoprotein that mediates its entry into host cells. \

The discovery that the virus grows well in multiple species without adaptation is important, but it does not necessarily predict whether each of the species is sickened by the virus, she said.

Scientists have a lot of questions to answer about the new virus, such as its tissue tropism, virulence mechanism, and transmission routes, Holmes said, adding, "It is amazing how quickly data from this newly discovered virus is flowing from many labs."

Rapid identification of reservoir hosts, routes of transmiss

ions, and virulence determinants in different hosts will help reduce human contact with potential animal reservoirs, and sensitive assays to detect viral RNA and proteins are being developed and used to analyze the epidemiology of the virus in humans and animals, Holmes said.

She said the virus has apparently been discovered before any widespread in humans, and current research will establish assays to allow health officials to rapidly evaluate any potential spread of the new virus to new hosts or different regions or from human to human.

Muller MA, Raj VS, Muth D, et al. Human coronavirus EMC does not require the SARS-coronavirus receptor and maintains broad replicative capability in mammalian cell lines. mBio 2012 Dec 11 [Abstract]

See also:

Dec 11 ASM press release  http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/other/sars/news/dec1112receptor.html

NOVEL CORONAVIRUS - EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN (04): RECEPTOR CHARACTERIZATION

A new study reveals that the new SARS-like coronavirus, which has been causing infections in the Middle East, behaves unusually in laboratory testing. The unexpected behaviour of the virus may help to explain the pattern of spread of the cases so far, says senior author Christian Drosten, a leading coronavirus expert. [Reference and Abstract reproduced below. - Mod.CP]



In essence, the new coronavirus is promiscuous, a term the virologists who authored the study use to describe the fact that it will grow in a variety of different types of animal cells, including cells from people, pigs, and several species of bats. That is not true for other known coronaviruses, which typically only grow in cells from the species they infect, says Drosten, who is the director of the institute of virology at the University of Bonn Medical Center, in Bonn, Germany. Dutch virologist Ron Fouchier agrees that the finding is surprising. "This is certainly unusual for a (corona)virus to have such a broad cellular host range," says Fouchier, a senior scientist with Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam.



The virus goes by the name hCoV-EMC, which is short for human coronavirus Erasmus Medical Centre [EMC]. Fouchier's lab was the first to sequence the full genetic code of the new virus. It is known to have infected at least 9 people from April [2012] onward, with cases recorded in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. 5 of the infected people have died. For this study, the researchers wanted to see if the new virus uses the same cell receptor as the virus that caused SARS. It was also a coronavirus.



Finding out what cells the new virus latches onto would help scientists assess the risk it poses. For instance, the SARS coronavirus attached to receptors found deep in human lungs. That meant in order to get sick, people had to have been exposed to a large dose of the virus, and have breathed it deep into their lungs. That probably explains why [the] SARS [coronavirus] made many of its victims so very ill; SARS killed roughly 11 per cent of the people it infected. But it also likely limited the SARS virus's ability to spread easily from person to person and may have helped in the eventual containment of the 2003 outbreak.



The EMC coronavirus does not use the same receptor that SARS does, the scientists found. At the time of the writing of the paper, published in the journal mBio [abstract below], they hadn't managed to find the receptor the EMC virus uses. But they did discover that it will grow in cells from 5 different species of bats, and in cells from pigs and humans. That is "absolutely unique among coronaviruses," they wrote. Drosten explains that when coronaviruses are found to have jumped into a new species, by the time science has detected the event the viruses have adapted to their new hosts. SARS is a good example. It is believed the SARS virus came from a similar coronavirus that infects bats. But if you try to infect bat cells with the SARS coronavirus, it won't work. Having switched species, the virus moved on, Drosten says. "The usual concept for the coronaviruses is that as soon as you see this virus in human, it's actually irrelevant where it came from because the problem is there. We have it in humans," he says.



Given that paradigm -- which holds true for other known coronaviruses -- experts like Drosten were worried when sporadic cases of human infections with the new virus came to light this fall. He feared the virus had left its animal reservoir and was spreading from person to person, with mild infections passing under the radar and only the severe cases coming to light.



But given that this virus seems to be able to infect multiple species -- at least in the lab -- that might suggest a pattern where the geographically and temporally distant cases are being infected from animal sources, not people, Drosten admits. In some respects, that's a more reassuring idea. But in others, it's not. If the virus is able to infect a number of types of animals, it could continue to make periodic jumps to humans -- which could impede containment efforts. If the EMC coronavirus were to get into animals farmed in the Middle East, for instance, human exposures could be ongoing, Fouchier says. "From looking at these data . . . you would think the zoonotic potential of a virus like this would be higher than something like the SARS coronavirus, which is more restricted," he says. A zoonosis is an animal disease that crosses the species barrier to infect people. The risk will depend in part on how well the virus transmits, which at this point is still a mystery. But Drosten says veterinary surveillance should be going on to look for the virus in livestock and wild animals in the Middle East.

Efforts DG PP and PL In response to News Death Ducks and Bird Flu Virus Mutation In Poultry

PROF. DR. TJANDRA YOGA ADITAMA SPP (K) MARS DTM & H DTCE DECEMBER 11, 2012 0

Jakarta, December 11, 2012, in connection with the death of ducks and mutation of the bird flu virus in poultry, the Director General of Disease Control and Environmental Health, Prof. dr. Tjandra Yoga Aditama SPP (K), MARS, DTM & H, DTCE, said that a mutation in the influenza virus can indeed occur, and it is always the case in many countries. Moreover, what is now happening is the mutation of the H5N1 bird flu virus into a clade (kind of) new, namely clade 2.3.2. Mutations to clade 2.3.2 now in birds, except in Indonesia also reported to have occurred in Vietnam, Cambodia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong.

So far, there is no man in Indonesia who contracted the bird flu virus H5N1 clade that recently.Transmission clade in humans have been reported in China, Hong Kong and Bangladesh, said Prof.Tjandra.

Efforts that have been made ​​of PP and PL Directorate General, Ministry of Health of Indonesia for vigilance and anticipation among others Make Director General Circular No. PP and PL; PM.01.01/D/II.1/1709/2012, the Department of Health in the area, so be wary if there is a large amount of poultry deaths, prevent and control the possibility of human contact with poultry deaths in large numbers, that if only there was a close contact of human with bird deaths in large numbers, then do the procedure well and check handling logistics, coordination and monitoring and reporting when there have been developments to watch.

In addition, the Director General of PP and PL also have talked about this in a meeting with the officer'surveilans various provinces, and called for increased vigilance / Alertness , on December 9, 2012 meeting.Coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture as well as with experts and relevant international organizations to monitor developments, as any existing development, scientific materials will always be propagated to the affected areas, said Prof. Tjandra,

This was stated by Prof.. dr. Tjandra Yoga Aditama of Jakarta.

A Toddler Suspected Bird Flu Hidap Allowed Home

Kulonprogo, ON: Due to natural heat and symptoms similar to bird flu, House of Regional General Hospital (Hospital) Kulonprogo District had suspected the toddler suspected of contracting bird flu.

google illustration

Toddlers from the District of Mercy who has fever and symptoms of bird flu treated in hospitals Kulonprogo, early last month in December 2012. "Hospital Admission Sunday (12/02/2012), the heat and almost similar to the symptoms of bird flu., and he said at the close new home there dead birds, "said Bambang Haryatno, Chief Hospital told Reuters Kulonprogo in his office, Tuesday (11/12/2012). Due to no information about the dead birds, the hospital moved quickly to deal with the case as patient handling bird flu. Even the blood samples sent to Jakarta to be examined whether positive or negative bird flu. "Apparently after his blood checked, negative laboratory results of bird flu. Toddlers And it has been allowed to go home on December 4th," he said.explained Bambang, it had socialized the community to be aware of the symptoms of bird flu.  http://www.obornews.com/7518-berita-seorang_balita_diduga_hidap_flu_burung_dibolehkan_pulang.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Indo stories

Jepara, Central Java AFP - Hundreds of dead birds suddenly in District Pecangaan, Jepara, Central Java, tested positive for bird flu. According to the Head of Department of Agriculture and Livestock Wasiyanto Jepara regency, in Jepara, on Tuesday, the number of birds that died suddenly to date as many as 216 birds. poultry that died suddenly, he said, first appeared in the Village Karangrandu, District Pecangaan on Sunday (10/12) and Monday (11/12), then there is also in the Village Gerdu, District Pecangaan...

http://www.antarajateng.com/detail/index.php?id=71256&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter#.UMdPBYPpfPk

Department of Animal Husbandry Not Convinced New Bird Flu

Kediri  Kediri-DVO implemented on a standard bird flu death of thousands of ducks in District Kandat. To date the Department has not yet received the results of laboratory investigations Center for Veterinary Yogyakarta who investigated the case. Head of Animal Health Apriati Dwiwin said two weeks ago, a team of Center for Veterinary perform sampling of blood and organs of dead ducks in the village field. Here the duck population that reached 28,492 in the tail is the largest district of Kediri. "The area that most cases of death," said Apriati, Tuesday, December 11, 2012.
 According to reports received from the breeder, this case happened since the last two months. They reported the number of ducks that died with symptoms of white eye and paralyzed. Clinical symptoms themselves according Apriati did not lead to the bird flu. however many deaths that occurred to make the Animal Husbandry Department to implement the standard treatment of bird flu. In addition to spraying disinfectant, duck carcass was also burnt.  Unfortunately up to now have not been able to enforce the Animal Husbandry Department special handling including duck isolate from outside the city following the publication of the results of laboratory tests yet of the Center for Veterinary Yogyakarta. Even the presence of the avian flu virus warning from the Ministry of Livestock has yet exist. "I can not do much because there has been no result," he said..
http://www.tempo.co/read/news/2012/12/11/058447550

egypt

Chief veterinarian said the Indonesian government in the e-mails today it had detected a virus cause of bird flu has never been observed before in the country, and led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of ducks in recent weeks.

Said Suyucor Ioantoro in a letter to the local administrations and the World Health Organization "and found a new kind of H5 virus that 1 strain of bird flu and very contagious from Class 2.3". He said, "This is a new category and monitor for the first time in Indonesia and very different from the type of virus that is selected by the class was 2.1."And poultry farmers' union announced the Ministry of Agriculture said that more than 300 thousand ducks died in a large number of the country's provinces. The Ioantoro recommended further research in order to know whether this virus is coming from a gene mutation of the virus is known so far, or a new type introduced from abroad. Email Agostyono said secretary of the control of animal diseases, "We believe that the virus has spread (in Indonesia after his arrival) from abroad, probably from Vietnam or Thailand."..

http://www.aleqt.com/2012/12/11/article_716343.html

Hospital Kulonprogo Suspect One Toddler Hit by Bird Flu-declared negative

Hospital Kulonprogo Suspect One Toddler Hit by Bird Flu
Tuesday, December 11, 2012, 22:17 PM

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, Wates - House of Regional General Hospital (Hospital) Kulonprogo District had suspected the toddler suspected of contracting bird flu. District Chair of Mercy who has fever and symptoms of bird flu were treated in hospitals Kulonprogo, beginning in December 2012 ago. "Hospital Admission Sunday (2/12), due to the heat and almost similar symptoms of bird flu. near his home, and he has just no dead birds," said Bambang Haryatno, Chief Kulonprogo Hospital, in his office on Tuesday (11 / 12). 
Due to no information about the dead birds, the hospital moved quickly to deal with the case as handling bird flu patients. Even the blood samples sent to Jakarta to be examined whether positive or negative bird flu. "Apparently after his blood checked, negative laboratory results of bird flu. Toddlers And it has been allowed to go home on December 4th," he said. explained Bambang, it had socialized the community to be aware of the symptoms of bird flu. Socialization is expected by society to be responsive and to bring citizens suspected of bird flu to the nearest health center or hospital. So workarounds are not too late.http://www.republika.co.id/berita/na...ena-flu-burung

Plague Bird Flu in West Java

Tuesday, December 11, 2012, 22:14 pm

JAKARTA - The bird flu virus recently returned endemic in some areas of West Java. As a result, thousands of ducks and chickens died suddenly belong to the community, particularly in the area of ​​Comrade Nyalindung Sukabumi district which is only 60 KM from the Bogor. 

Nyalindung is an area of ​​seven H5N1 virus endemic area in Sukabumi and also hit the district and sub-district Banyuresmi Cibiuk, Garut.

In addition, the endemic H5N1 virus occurred in Tegalbuleud, Purabaya, Cireunghas, Purabaya, Middle Jampang and Bojonggenteng. The incident was thought to have been going on since last month. "The bird flu virus is in birds, the ducks and chickens," said Ali Ghufron Mukti, Deputy Minister (Wamen), Ministry of Health (MoH), in Jakarta, Tuesday (11/12).

Initially, said Ali, ducks and chickens will not eat then limp and dead. As a result, egg production declined and farmers suffered considerable losses. "To date I have not received any reports of human casualties. Currently no human casualties," he said.

According to Ali, the Ministry of Health has formed a team of surveillance and rapid response teams. "We urge people not to make direct contact with ducks or chickens infected with bird flu," she said, adding farmers ducks and chickens should not be too anxious. 

"We will melakukaan efforts to farmers to overcome the virus attack. Namely, using drugs and separating ducks and chickens that have been affected," said Ali.

However, he said people were asked to ducks and chickens that died in order to be burned or buried so that the virus does not spread.

"We are also asking the public to keep a clean and healthy lifestyle," he said, adding MoH has also taken samples and do the testing in the laboratory to ensure there is an outbreak of bird flu that hit some parts of West Java and preventing it from spreading to other areas such as Bekasi West Java , Depok and Bogor.   

http://www.republika.co.id/berita/nasional/jawa-barat-nasional/12/12/11/mevgzq-flu-burung-mewabah-di-jabar

MoH Anticipation of Bird Flu Virus Mutation

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Not long ago, hundreds of thousands of ducks owned poultry farmers in Java died suddenly due to Avian influenza virus or better known as H5N1.

Poultry deaths occurred in the province of East Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta and West Java. It is feared, the virus has attacked humans although until now there has been no reports of people suspect.

Director General of Disease Control and Environmental Health (P2PL) Ministry of Health, Prof. Dr. Tjandra Yoga Aditama SPP (K) said that a mutation in the influenza virus can indeed occur, and is always the case in many countries. "Yang. now happening is mutated H5N1 bird flu virus that becameclade (kind of) new, namely clade 2.3.2. mutations to clade 2.3.2 present in poultry, except in Indonesia also reported in Vietnam, Cambodia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong, "he said. 

So far, he said, no man in Indonesia who contracted the bird flu virus H5N1 clade that recently. "MoH has done anticipation and alertness for example, to create a circular to the health department in the area, so be aware if there are a large number of poultry deaths," he said.

 MoH also asked health office in the area to prevent and control the possibility of human contact with poultry deaths in large numbers . "Had it no close human contact with poultry deaths in large numbers, it is done with good handling procedures," he added. Later, he added, need to check dinkes in areas of logistics, coordination and monitoring and reporting when there are developments to watch "Coordination with other ministries as well as absolutely necessary to coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture to monitor developments, as well as with relevant experts. Also any developments and scientific materials are always deployed to the affected areas, "he said.  http://www.republika.co.id/berita/nasional/umum/12/12/11/mevgah-kemenkes-antisipasi-mutasi-virus-flu-burung

New coronavirus features compared with SARS

Completely unusual for coronavirus to go back to its bat reservoir, scientist says

CBC News 

Posted: Dec 11, 2012 5:55 AM ET 

A new coronavirus that's been blamed for five deaths can infect a range of animals, a finding scientists say could make it harder to eliminate compared with SARS.

The coronavirus emerged in the Middle East, where there's been nine infections, including the five fatal cases since June, according to the World Health Organization.

Like SARS, the new virus is most closely related to coronaviruses from bats. (Kin Cheung/Reuters)

In Tuesday's issue of the journal mBio, published by the American Society for Microbiology, German researchers describe their studies comparing the new virus, called hCoV-EMC, with SARS or severe acute respiratory syndrome. About 8,500 people were affected by SARS in 2003 and about 700 died, including 44 in Toronto.

"The virus is capable of infecting human, pig and bat cells," Christian Drosten of the University of Bonn Medical Centre and co-authors concluded.

"Our results implicate that the new virus might use a receptor that is conserved between bats, pigs and humans suggesting a low barrier against cross-host transmission."

Scientists are watching for signs of "cross-host transmission" because if the virus is able to infect cells from a range of species then it might be able to pass easily between animals and humans repeatedly. That would make it harder to stamp out.

So far, the virus causes the same pattern of disease as SARS, Drosten said.

Researchers have found no evidence of human-to-human transmissionof the new virus, which they are also watching for closely to check if it could spread like wildfire. The two fatal cases were part of a cluster linked to a hospital, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said.

The limited information available about this outbreak does not allow for an assessment of whether human-to-human transmission has occurred or indeed whether the cases in this cluster had the same cause, the agency said in a release on Monday.

The SARS virus latched onto receptors deep in the human lung, which may explain why it led to severe illness but is also thought to have limited its spread between people, the German researchers said.

Drosten's team performed a series of experiments to see whether hCoV-EMC used the same receptor in the lungs of humans and bats, which acted as a reservoir for SARS.

They concluded that the new virus does not seem to rely on the same receptor as SARS.

It's possible that the new virus could use a receptor that is easier to access, which could make it more infectious. No one knows what receptor it does use.

Like SARS, the new virus is most closely related to coronaviruses from bats. But unlike SARS, the new virus can still infect cells from many species of bats.

"This was a big surprise," Drosten said in a release. "It's completely unusual for any coronavirus to be able to do that — to go back to its original reservoir."

Scientists are also on the hunt for the animal source of the virus, which could give them clues to managing a potential outbreak.

The study was funded by the European Union, Antigone, the German Research Foundation and the German Ministry of Education and Research.  http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2012/12/10/respiratory-virus-coronavirus-sars-compare.html?

New coronavirus could pass from animals to humans repeatedly

The SARS epidemic of 2002-2003 was short-lived, but a novel type of human coronavirus that is alarming public health authorities can infect cells from humans and bats alike, a fact that could make the animals a continuing source of infection, according to a study to be published in in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, on December 11.

The new coronavirus, called hCoV-EMC, is blamed for five deaths and several other cases of severe disease originating in countries in the Middle East. According to the new results, hCoV-EMC uses a different receptor in the human body than the SARS virus, and can infect cells from a wide range of bat species and pigs, indicating there may be little to keep the virus from passing from animals to humans over and over again.

First identified in a patient in Saudi Arabia in June, nine laboratory-confirmed cases of hCoV-EMC infection have now been identified, five of whom have died. Although the virus does not apparently pass from person-to-person very readily, the case fatality rate and the fact that the source of the virus has not been identified have caused concern among global public health authorities. Cases of hCoV-EMC infection are marked by severe pneumonia and often by kidney failure.

“This virus is closely related to the SARS virus, and looking at the clinical picture, it causes the same pattern of disease,” says Christian Drosten of the University of Bonn Medical Centre in German, a lead author of the study.

Given the similarities, Drosten and his colleagues wanted to know whether hCoV-EMC and SARS might use the same receptor, a sort of molecular “dock” on human cells that the virus latches onto to gain entry to the cell. The SARS receptor, called ACE2, is found mostly on pneumocytes deep within the human lung, so an individual must breathe in many, many SARS viruses for a sufficient number of them to reach this susceptible area and cause an infection. Drosten says this simple fact helped ensure the SARS outbreak didn’t spread like wildfire and was mostly limited to healthcare workers and residents of overcrowded housing in Hong Kong. Also, once a person was infected with SARS in the deep part of their lungs, he or she felt sick almost immediately and therefore was not active in the community and infecting others, another aspect of the receptor that helped curb the outbreak.

Does hCoV-EMC use the same receptor? If so, the means of controlling this new virus might become clearer.

“The answer is a clear no,” says Drosten. “This virus does not use ACE2.” This leaves open the possiblity that hCoV-EMC could use a receptor in the human lung that is easier to access and could make the virus more infectious than SARS, but it is still not known what receptor the virus does use.

Coronavirus has many possible hosts

To help identify how hCoV-EMC might have originated and moved between humans and animals, the second part of the study focused on the animal species the virus can infect. SARS is closely related to viruses from bats, but Drosten says the virus changed in the transition from bats to civet cats to humans and could no longer infect bats, so SARS was not present in the wild and did not pass repeatedly from bats to humans like a classical zoonotic disease. “So the [SARS] virus lost its old host and gained a new one,” says Drosten.

Like SARS, hCoV-EMC is most closely related to coronaviruses from bats, but unlike SARS, this study found that hCoV-EMC can still infect cells from many different species of bats. “This was a big surprise,” says Drosten. “It’s completely unusual for any coronavirus to be able to do that – to go back to its original reservoir.” The virus is also able to infect cells from pigs, indicating that it uses a receptor structure that all these animals have in common. If that receptor is present in mucosal surfaces, like the lining of the lung, it is possible the virus could pass from animals to humans and back again, making animals an ongoing source of the virus that would be difficult or impossible to eliminate.

Drosten says work on hCoV-EMC will continue in many hospitals and laboratories. His own lab will continue the search for the hCoV-EMC receptor and will work on developing diagnostic tools to help identify cases of infection with the virus.

Drosten says he’s also driven to find the animal source of the virus, a crucial piece of information in managing a potential outbreak. The virus can infect bats with host ranges that extend all across Europe and into the Arabian Peninsula.

Read more at http://scienceblog.com/58412/new-coronavirus-could-pass-from-animals-to-humans-repeatedly/#yiPXlx6UtPs3ixMC.99 

Indonesia discovers more dangerous Avian Flu strain

Dec 11th, 2012 @ 03:37 pm

AKARTA: Global health workers are already concerned about recent findings in Indonesia that suggest they have discovered a new strain of the deadly H5N1 Avian Flu that is more dangerous and virulent than others.

The new strain killed hundreds of thousands of ducks in the past few weeks and there are concerns that the virus could spread to humans.

“We found a highly pathogenic avian influenza sub-type H5N1 (virus) with clade 2.3…” the agriculture ministry’s veterinary chief Syukur Iwantoro said in the letter obtained by AFP and quoted on Tuesday in a report.

“This clade is a new clade found for the first time in Indonesia, that is very different to the avian influenza found before, which is clade 2.1.”

A clade is a group of organisms, usually species, with a common ancestor, doctors said.

A poultry breeders’ association had reported the death of more than 300,000 ducks in several provinces on Java island since November to the ministry.

The veterinary office found the H5N1 virus involved was a different clade to that usually found in Indonesia, said Iwantoro’s letter to local government offices and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Avian Flu has killed scores of people and millions of birds over the past few years, but is not transmittable from human to human contact, but medical professionals fear that if the virus were to mutate and be communicable for humans, it could devastate populations.

http://www.bikyamasr.com/83311/indonesia-discovers-more-dangerous-avian-flu-strain/

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1), Egypt, Human

Update EMPRES-I

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1), Egypt, Human

GENERAL INFO

Disease Event ID: 173844

Reporting date: 10/12/2012

Observation date: 02/12/2012

LOCATION

Region: Africa

Admin 1 (Country): Domyat (Damietta) (Egypt)

Locality:  Kafr Saad

Lat/Long: 31.3581690667 / 31.7150010065

Quality of Coordinates: Centroid Admin1

DISEASE

Status: Confirmed

DISEASE: Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza

Serotype: H5N1

Source: National Authorities

LABORATORIES

Disease Tested: Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza

Species: …

Test: RT-PCR

Result: Positive

Result Date: 09/12/2012

Reference Laboratory: …

EMPRES-i - Global Animal Disease Information System#h=1

http://empres-i.fao.org/eipws3g/#h=1

Belarus has banned the importation of products from Taiwan because of the "bird flu"

"On December 11, introduced temporary restrictions on imports from Taiwan live poultry, hatching eggs, down and feather, poultry and all kinds of poultry products, feed and feed additives in poultry as well as used equipment for keeping, slaughtering and butchering of birds" , - the indication of the Ministry of Agriculture of Belarus.  http://afn.by/news/i/175154

Gettin' his chop on

Ducks in Kediri

(Upstreamonline.com)

Hundreds of Ducks Sudden Death, Breeders Suspect Bird Flu

Liputan6.com, Kediri : Just in time no more than three days, hundreds of ducks in Kediri, East Java, died suddenly. Provisional estimates, the birds died of the bird flu virus. Department of Kediri farms still awaiting lab results before taking any concrete action on the case. Hundreds of ducks that died suddenly most severe in the village of moor, District Kandat. Every day there are dozens of dead duck. According to the local duck farmers, Sawaji, Tuesday (11/12/2012) classified as sudden death. Within a day, which initially looks healthy ducks suddenly looked ill and soon died. There are no precautions against the spread of the disease. But the local duck farmers took no chances, they malakukan own prevention efforts by spraying disinfectant and vaccination of livestock. chief animal health official farm Kediri, Apriati Dwiwin reveal the presence of disease 'mysterious' is not only the duck population in Kediri risk continues to decrease, but also duck egg production declined. Kandat District is one of the central breeding ducks Kediri. Duck population here reached over 28 thousand heads

Indo hospitals prepare for suspected cases of bird flu

RS Tangerang Prepare Special Teams Handle Bird Flu

Tuesday, December 11, 2012, 20:00 pm

Reuters / Fiqman Sunandar

  

An officer of the farms do penyomprotan residents in the chicken coop to prevent the bird flu virus (H5N1).

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - A number of hospitals began memersiapkan themselves when faced with the threat of bird flu in 2013. One of them Tangerang District General Hospital which is one referral hospital in handling a case of bird flu. 

Chief Public Relations RSU Tangerang regency, Dr. Ahmad Mukhlis, said the hospital already has a dedicated team to deal with bird flu which consists of specialist doctors, Lung, Son , and ER. Mukhlis continued, the hospital has two classifications patient's arrival. "The first one, came straight to the hospital, and the second is a referral from another hospital for treatment here," he said on Tuesday (11/12). 

Patients who come directly to the ER for evaluation, examination, and laboratory tests.Mukhlis added, if it proves bird flu patient, means it will go into the isolation room with amenities tools. While that is still alleged, in the independent stage. "The difference is not independent can not move. While the patient is still able to self-indulge" he continued. supporting tool in the form of bedside monitors and ventilator while our office named Airborne infection isolation room. hepafilter In this room there is a negative air pressure in order to aim the air out of the sterile room. while patients will receive special handling, from nurses, doctors equipped with special clothing. 

"Although no cases of bird flu infect humans, but we remain vigilant," he said. The hospital also provides CCTV for families who are not allowed to enter.

http://www.republika.co.id/berita/nasional/umum/12/12/11/mevasc-rs-tangerang-siapkan-tim-khusus-tangani-flu-burung