Researchers in China have discovered a new type of swine flu which could possibly trigger a pandemic, according to a study published in the US science journal PNAS published on Monday.
It is named G4 and it is a genetic descendant from the H1N1 Strain that caused a pandemic in 2009.
It possesses "all the essential hallmarks of being highly adapted to infect humans," say the authors, scientists at Chinese universities and China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Researchers have collected 30,000 nasal swabs from pigs in slaughterhouses from 10 Chinese provinces and in a veterinary hospital. They have isolated 179 swine flu viruses as a part of the process between the period of 2011 to 2018. A new kind was dominant among pigs since 2016.
G4 was observed to be a highly infectious virus that replicates in human cells. Tests also show that the immunity humans gain via exposure to seasonal flue does not protect one from G4.
Scientists state that the virus has already passed from animals to human however they do not have any evidence yet that confirms that it can pass from one scientist to another.
"It is of concern that human infection of G4 virus will further human adaptation and increase the risk of a human pandemic," the researchers wrote.
The authors called for urgent measures to monitor people working with pigs.
"The work comes as a salutary reminder that we are constantly at risk of new emergence of zoonotic pathogens and that farmed animals, with which humans have greater contact than with wildlife, may act as the source for important pandemic viruses," said James Wood, head of the department of veterinary medicine at Cambridge University.
OTHER NEWS SHOTS
