Genetic Tests Reveal More About New H5N6 Reassortant (
CIDRAP) The latest analysis of reassortant H5N6 avian flu viruses from South Korean wild birds and domestic ducks shows that the strain is a close relative of an H5N6 virus that first turned up in Greek poultry last season, but it has 2 mutations that might alter its susceptibility to neuraminidase inhibitors, according to an expert familiar the test results.
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Government Affairs & National Security
Global Health Security
Virome Project Aims to Outfox Pandemics with Global Virus Atlas (
Genome Web) The scourges of Ebola, Zika, HIV, and pandemic influenza each began innocently enough as infections of animals before making the devastating leap into people. A new initiative now aims to eradicate all such zoonotic viral pandemics through a comprehensive characterization of the global virome.
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Medicine & Public Health
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Estimates of Global Seasonal Influenza-Associated Respiratory Mortality: A Modelling Study (
The Lancet) Estimates of influenza-associated mortality are important for national and international decision making on public health priorities. Previous estimates of 250,000-500,000 annual influenza deaths are outdated. We updated the estimated number of global annual influenza-associated respiratory deaths using country-specific influenza-associated excess respiratory mortality estimates from 1999-2015.
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Science & Technology
Durability and Correlates of Vaccine Protection Against Zika Virus in Rhesus Monkeys (
Science Translational Medicine) An effective Zika virus vaccine will require long-term durable protection. Several ZIKV vaccine candidates have demonstrated protective efficacy in nonhuman primates, but these studies have typically involved ZIKV challenge shortly after vaccination at peak immunity. We show that a single immunization with an adenovirus vector-based vaccine, as well as 2 immunizations with a purified inactivated virus vaccine, afforded robust protection against ZIKV challenge in rhesus monkeys at 1 year after vaccination.
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Lab Robots Crucial for End-to-End Food Safety Data Systems (
Food Safety News) Next generation sequencing is beginning to replace traditional DNA methods in food safety testing. As this trend continues, sequencing will no longer be the time intensive process it once was. Laboratories will be limited by how quickly they can prepare samples, not how quickly they can sequence them. Automation will, therefore, play an increasingly critical role in the evolution of laboratory processes.
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Other 21st Century Threats
