Message Number: FHL8818 | New FHL Archives Search
From: "Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2009-04-30 22:05:22 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Swine Flu
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com

indications that ferrets did NOT easily get
another swine flu and may not be a good
animal model for studying this disease:

http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/04/ferreting-out-t.html

Many thanks to Marylou for finding this!

A FEW QUOTED SEGMENTS BEGIN:

> a report last October of an outbreak of influenza
>in a ferret colony has led to questions about whether
>this animal model can help sort out a critical question
>about the current swine flu outbreak: What allows this
>particular virus to transmit so well between humans?
...
>No studies have ever tested swine flu viruses on ferrets...
>Iowa State University reported ... that an outbreak of
>influenza in a ferret colony on an Iowa farm infected 8%
>of about 1000...
...
>"I was relieved," says Yoon, who worried that the ferrets,
>like swine, might have been a "mixing vessel" of influenza
>viruses from different species.

> the Iowa study is "very, very relevant," as it indicates that
> the ferret "is not going to work for us as a model" to help
>tease out how a swine H1N1 mutated to become transmissible
>between humans.

END QUOTED SEGMENTS



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