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According to genetic studies, the G4 strain is derived from the H1N1 swine flu that caused the 2009 pandemic.
The virus has “all the key characteristics that show it is highly adapted to infect humans,” according to a study by Chinese universities and the country’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 2011-2018, researchers surveyed 30,000. Porcine nasal swabs collected in slaughterhouses in ten provinces of China, as well as in a veterinary hospital. By analyzing this material, the researchers isolated 179 strains of swine flu.
Most of them belong to a new subgroup that has dominated among pigs since 2016.
The researchers conducted several tests on ferrets, which are often used to study the flu, because for them, these viruses cause human-like symptoms: fever, cough, and runny nose.
Viruses in the G4 subgroup have been found to be highly contagious, capable of multiplying in human cells and causing more severe symptoms in ferrets than other viruses.
Studies also show that resistance to G4 subgroup viruses is not acquired after the onset of seasonal influenza.
According to blood antibody tests, 10.4 percent. Workers on pig farms were already infected with the virus.
The test results also show that the newly discovered virus subgroup is affected by up to 4.4 percent. population.
Therefore, the virus has already been transmitted to animal humans, but so far there is no evidence that humans can infect it from other people, which could pave the way for its significant spread.
“You are concerned that G4 is infected [organizmuose] More adjustments will be made and the risk of a human pandemic will increase, ”the researchers write.
When asked about the threat at a regular press conference on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the country was “closely monitoring its development” and would take additional steps to prevent the spread of the virus and any outbreak.
The study authors called on authorities to take urgent measures to monitor the health of people who come into contact with pigs at work.
“This work is a welcome reminder that we are constantly threatened by the emergence of new zoonotic pathogens, and that pets with which humans have closer contact than wildlife can be a source of major pandemic viruses,” he said. James Wood, head of the veterinary department at the University of Cambridge.
Zoonoses (zoonotic infections) are caused by pathogens transmitted from animals to humans.
The full scientific article can be accessed by clicking on this link.
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