H1N1 identified in dogs

I was just about to post this when I saw our reader, Snoopys friend, had beaten me to it. News is coming out of China that H1N1, the "swine flu" virus, has been identified in two dogs in Beijing. From China Daily:

Health experts in China have assured pet-lovers they need not panic following the discovery of two dogs infected with the deadly H1N1 flu at the weekend.



The animals were diagnosed in Beijing and, while it is possible for pets to transfer viruses to their owners, scientists said there is no evidence to suggest pets are already spreading the illness.



"If animals can get infected from humans, then the reverse is also true," said Feng Zijian, director of emergency response for the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.



"But there is no need to panic in this case."



He explained that so far, across the world, the virus has only been passed from humans to pets.



However, if the virus spreads among dogs, it could potentially be passed on when the animal sneezes or through its waste.



"Only when the virus mutates within dogs will it be a new threat to humans," Feng said.



The virus found in dogs in Beijing was a 99-percent match for the flu currently infecting humans, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, which announced the canine infection on Saturday but did not elaborate on the breed.

Full story is here. And watch for my column in SFGate.com tomorrow, where I'll be looking at H1N1 in cats and dogs, and the troubling reality that influenza viruses are, for the first time in known history, adapting to cause disease in our canine and feline family pets.

Comments

[Dr. Tony Johnson]

Good job, Christie! You got picked up by Google News! Thanks for helping to spread the word, and helping to calm fears. I am glad we are spreading real information, not fear.

[The OTHER Pat]

Dr. Tony - a question: From the article:



“If animals can get infected from humans, then the reverse is also true,” said Feng Zijian, director of emergency response for the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.



Is this a correct statement? I thought that diseases DON'T always have a "two-way" transmission. That is, I thought that just because a disease transfers from human to animal, for example, that it is NOT necessarily the case that then the reverse (animal to human) is also true.



Was this a mis-statement by the Chinese official?

[Janeen]

The thing that worries me most about this - especially in China - is the possibility of an enormous, ulgy over-reaction by humans.



Anyone else remember how the Chinese dealt with bird flu...

[The OTHER Pat]

Yeah, that was the first thing that came to my mind, too. Although it's a hopeful sign that the Chinese CDC guy was actually quoted as saying that there's no need for panic . . . . . . .

[Anne T]

Wonderful. H1N1 and it's variants are interspecies specific. Lovely. Since nothing will be done to curb this, since it's coming from China, our friend because she buys up our debt to fund our government. If Nixon weren't already dead, I'd shoot the bast*rd!

"Influenza viruses of the H3N2 subtype were still circulating in humans in May of 1977 when H1N1 viruses were isolated in China and then Russia. In the winter of 1977-78 the H1N1 viruses caused epidemic infection throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The results of serological tests indicated that the HA and NA glycoproteins of the 1977 H1N1 viruses were very similar to those from viruses of the same subtype which circulated in 1950. Palese’s group compared viral RNA of one 1977 isolate, A/USSR/90/77, with RNA from a virus isolated in 1950. To their surprise, the two viral RNAs were highly related. In contrast, there was less similarity between viral RNAs from the 1977 H1N1 virus and H1N1 viruses that circulated in humans between 1947 and 1956.



Why were the viral genomes of the 1977 H1N1 isolate and the 1950 virus so similar? If the H1N1 viruses had been replicating in an animal host for 27 years, far more genetic differences would have been identified. The authors suggested several possibilities, but only one is compelling:



…it is possible that the 1950 H1N1 influenza virus was truly frozen in nature or elsewhere and that such a strain was only recently introduced into man.



The suggestion is clear: the virus was frozen in a laboratory freezer since 1950, and was released, either by intent or accident, in 1977. This possibility has been denied by Chinese and Russian scientists, but remains to this day the only scientifically plausible explanation."

http://www.virology.ws/2009/03/02/origin-of-current-influenza-h1n1-virus/

[straybaby]

Weren't they also recently running around killing dogs because of rabies or something?



What worries me is that if it does start mutating, we will get a severe reaction . . . (from their and other governments, not the pets!)

[Dr. Tony Johnson]

OP -

Honestly, I am not sure. I think it depends on the virus-host interaction, and we don't know enough about H1N1 to say conclusively. Mind you - I am not a virologist, or specialist in infectious diseases.



My gut is that this statement is not correct.

[Gina Spadafori]

The AVMA and USDA is now reporting H1N1 positives in a zoo cheetah in California and in a turkey breeder's flock in Virginia:



http://www.avma.org/public_health/influenza/new_virus/default.asp