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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/15/bird-flu-h5n1-mutation-more-deadly-virus-australia>
"In 1996, geese in poultry farms in the Guangdong province of southern China
started to get sick with a virus causing “bleeding and neurological
dysfunction” and then death.
A strain of avian influenza had likely arrived as a relatively harmless virus
in migrating wild birds but had morphed into something “highly pathogenic”,
killing about 40% of infected geese.
Now, after appearing and disappearing, evolving and mutating and traversing the
planet – leaving millions of dead birds and mammals in its wake – a descendant
of that same H5N1 virus is, 30 years later, killing wild birds in Australia.
“Right from the beginning there was great concern about the emergence of this
virus,” says Dr Frank Wong, a virologist and avian influenza expert at the
CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness.
But why the concern?
Many avian influenza viruses are known as “low pathogenicity” because they
cause only mild symptoms, or none at all. High pathogenicity viruses cause
serious illnesses and death.
Avian influenza viruses are also classified by the two types of proteins on
their surface – hemagglutinin that has 16 sub-types and neuraminidase, which
has nine.
These are important because the proteins are what the virus uses to latch on to
the cells of a host. The only versions of these avian viruses to have evolved
into deadly strains are H5 and H7.
Wong says until 1996 a H5 virus had never been seen before spilling into
domestic geese to then become highly pathogenetic in domestic birds.
“That was an immediate flag,” he says."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
