Bird flu jumps to seals, humans could be next

Environment News Service: A bird flu virus known for 10 years has now infected aquatic mammals, and the scientists who discovered the source of the infection are warning that the virus could become a public health threat.

The virus, known as avian H3N8 influenza A, was responsible for an outbreak of fatal pneumonia that has infected harbor seals in New England, a scientific team has found. The death of these seals is a U.S. federally recognized “unusual mortality event.“

The discovery of the connection between the bird flu virus and the seal deaths was made by a team of scientists from the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the New England Aquarium, the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center, SeaWorld and the EcoHealth Alliance.

“This outbreak is particularly significant, not only because of the disease it caused in seals but also because the virus has naturally acquired mutations that are known to increase transmissibility and virulence in mammals,” the scientists write in the current issue of “mBio,” a journal published by the American Society for Microbiology....

Harbor seals at the aquarium in Norwalk, Connecticut, shot by Sgt. R.K. Blue, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license