UK researchers have homed in on a human gene implicated in thwarting most bird flu viruses from infecting people.
Bird flu chiefly spreads among wild birds such as ducks and gulls and can also infect farmed birds and domestic poultry such as chickens, turkeys and quails.
A team of scientists from the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research studied hundreds of genes normally expressed by human cells, comparing the genes' behaviour during infection with either human seasonal viruses or avian flu viruses. All the human influenza pandemics, including the 1918-19 global flu pandemic, were caused by influenza viruses that were resistant to BTN3A3, and therefore the gene appears to be a key factor in whether any bird flu strain has human pandemic potential, the researchers said.
Earlier this year, a new H5NI strain of bird flu that transmits easily among wild birds explosively spread into new corners of the globe, infecting and killing a variety of mammal species and raising fears of. So far, only a handful of human cases have been reported to the World Health Organization .
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