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The H5N1 bird flu computer virus creditworthy for the current U.S. irruption in dairy farm Bos taurus is increasingly adjust to spread in mammals , fresh enquiry in marine mammals suggest . Some experts worry this ontogeny could presage eventual human - to - human transmission .
In a preprint subject that has not yet been peer - review , research worker from the University of California , Davis and the National Institute of Agricultural Technology ( INTA ) in Argentina find evidence of the virus being spread among elephant cachet and other marine mammalian . They also found interlingual rendition of the virus that could both broadcast between mammals and infect birds .
The outbreak has spread to mammals including sea lions in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago.
" The implication that H5N1 virus are becoming more evolutionary flexible and adapting to mammals in new ways could have globular consequences for wildlife , human , and/or livestock,“the researchers wrotein the novel study , which was posted to the preprint database bioRxiv June 1 .
This interlingual rendition of H5N1 lead off to spread widely among birds in 2020 — first in Europe and then in South Africa . The virus seem in North America in 2022 and subsequently circulate to South America . In August 2023 , it was find at the very tip of South America , on the Tierra del Fuego archipelago — not in birds , but in sea social lion .
Then , in October 2023 , researchers from UC Davis and INTA found that the flu wasripping through a dependency of elephant sealsat Punta Delgada on the coast of Península Valdés in Argentina . The disease killed more than 17,000 elephant seals , include 96 % of pup born that time of year .
genetical sequencing of the virulent virus revealed it to be a particular linage called clade 2.3.4.4b , genetic constitution B3.2 . This stock spread from migrant birds into mammals in South America multiple times in late 2022 and 2023 , with one of those spillovers develop into a raw line of descent that can spread easily from mammal to mammal , the researchers found . The genetic information yoke mammal outbreak in Argentina , Chile , Peru and Brazil — the first known multinational mammal - to - mammal spread of the virus , the researchers report .
" This is increase grounds that we should be alert , particularly for maritime mammals , " co - lead authorDr . Marcela Uhart , a veterinarian with the UC Davis Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center and its Latin America Program , said in a instruction . " The more it adapts to mammals the more of import it becomes for humans . "
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The virus can taint humans , but report cases are rare . The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has regain four cases in humankind in the U.S. — one from 2022 and three from 2024 . The 2022 typeface had direct pic to poultry , while the 2024 caseswere channel from dairy farm cows .
" This virus is up to of adapting to mammals , as we can see from the mutations that are systematically found in the viruses belonging to the mammalian clade , " study atomic number 27 - leaderAgustina Rimondi , a virologist at INTA , pronounce in the statement .
Both Uhart and Rimondi said continued monitoring of the computer virus in wildlife is key to understanding the potential consequences for human health .
