Quote by mdr2000
Since the only "birds" I touch are the 2 legged , 2 armed , normal human headed variety I think i'm safe lol.
Davie
Quote by little gem
Since the only "birds" I touch are the 2 legged , 2 armed , normal human headed variety I think i'm safe lol.
Davie
:lol: posting threads about dead birds, not specifing pulse in requirements etc.... :uhoh: ;) Quote by BigScotsBloke
Since the only "birds" I touch are the 2 legged , 2 armed , normal human headed variety I think i'm safe lol.
Davie
:lol:
Quote by BigScotsBloke
Thanks mike lol , they can take the pis* if they like I only posted it since it was in the news and altho nothing to do with the "scene" I think its something we need to think about. Only thing we need be carefull about is do NOT touch dead or dying poultry / geese / swans better to call the DeFRA hotline and keep well away.
Davie
Quote by Geordiecpl2001
Can bird flu be cured with a dose of ...........Parakeetamol??
John & Shel
Quote by lee1983
a lot of people do seem to be getting worried about bird flu. From what i have heard there isnt a lot fo risk at the moment of people catching it unless they ahve very close contact to the birds. Its ony if the virus changes, like a cold, your body will be immune to hundreds of types of colds but the virus keeps changing so you keep getting them.
Virology of Influenza Type A
The Influenza Type A virus belongs to the orthomyxoviridae family. It is an enveloped RNA virus. There are eight pieces of RNA within the genome, which encode for ten proteins. These proteins are Haemagglutinin (HA) and Neuraminidase (NA), the envelope glycoproteins. The matrix protein (M!), a nucleoprotein (NP), an ion channel protein (M2), Polymerases (PB1, PB2 and PA) and two non-structural proteins (NS1 and NS2).
Genetic and serological differences in the genes encode the surface glycoproteins (HA and NA) and the differences in HA and NA themselves are used to further divide influenza Type A into subtypes.
There are nine subtypes of NA (N1-N9) and fifteen of HA (H1-H15). All of the subtypes are found in wild aquatic birds although disease is not often present. Only the subtypes H1, H2, H3 and N1 and N2 are found commonly in man. The avian influenza Type A subtypes H5N1 and H9N2 were isolated in Humans, in Hong Kong in 1997 and 1998 respectively.
There are two mechanisms by which Influenza Type A virus undergoes genetic variation. The first is genetic drift. This is characterised by a point mutation caused by selective pressure. A way to imagine this type of change is to visualise the surface glycoproteins as a colour, green for example. If they were dark green, during a genetic drift they could become light green. The HA glycoproteins are the most antigenic of the surface glycoproteins. If these are changed by antigenic drift then the existing antibodies will no longer protect the population, explaining why epidemics occur.
Antigenic shift is when the whole gene for one subtype (i.e. H1N2) is substituted by a gene for another subtype (i.e. H2N2)9. A way to visualise this is to imagine the glycoproteins as green again but this time they suddenly turn to pink.
Studies have shown that when new gene segments have been introduced into human pathogenic Influenza Type A they are closely related to avian viruses. It is thought that a susceptible host has been co-infected with both the avian Influenza and human Influenza resulting in a re-assortment event. It has been proposed that the re-assortment event could be hosted by pigs. The H5N1 subtype identified in 1997 was identified as an avian virus. This had not undergone any change. It is thought that if it was not stopped when it was, then the re-assortment event could have taken place in man. This could have occurred if a human was infected with both a human Influenza virus strain and the avian H5N1 subtype resulting in a Pandemic.
