The Canary Database
Yale Occupational and
Environmental Medicine Program
135 College St
Room 366
New Haven, CT, USA
06510-2283
|
|
Science 2000 May 12;288(5468):1051-3.
|
|
Influenza B virus in seals.
Osterhaus AD, Rimmelzwaan GF, Martina BE, Bestebroer TM, Fouchier RA
National Influenza Center, Department of Virology, Erasmus University, Doctor Molewaterplein 50, 3015 GE Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Article type: Curated - Canary ID: 402
|
Influenza B virus is a human pathogen whose origin and possible reservoir in nature are not known. An influenza B virus was isolated from a naturally infected harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) and was found to be infectious to seal kidney cells in vitro. Sequence analyses and serology indicated that influenza virus B/Seal/Netherlands/1/99 is closely related to strains that circulated in humans 4 to 5 years earlier. Retrospective analyses of sera collected from 971 seals showed a prevalence of antibodies to influenza B virus in 2% of the animals after 1995 and in none before 1995. This animal reservoir, harboring influenza B viruses that have circulated in the past, may pose a direct threat to humans.
|
|
|
|
|
|
