Influenza and wildlife
Mix and match
Which animal species are most likely to get flu?
Jan 7th 2010
Saturday February 11th 2012
Advertisement
Most commented
- Tibetans and the Chinese state: No power to pacify
- Birtherism 2012: To the nation born
- Will the euro survive 2012 intact?
- Syria: Moscow rules
- Hong Kong and the mainland: Dogs and locusts
- The Republican nomination: The Santorum surge
- Islam and homosexuality: Straight but narrow
- Barack Obama, Catholics and contraceptives: The accommodation
- Empiricism in politics: On opinions beyond the reach of data
- Israel and Iran: Closer to take-off
Over the past five days
Most recommended
- Scientific publishing: The price of information
- America, Syria and the UN: This is what foreign-policy success looks like
- JAS's cartoon: The week ahead
- Protests in Cairo: The beautiful game turns ugly
- Malev stops flying: Survival of the fittest
- Competition in Chile: The shine comes off
- Quick Study: Daniel Kahneman on economic decision-making: Can we ever trust instinct?
- Fuel economy: Difference engine: Going along for the ride
- Syria: Moscow rules
- Lexington: The classes drift apart
Over the past seven days
Advertisement
Products & events
Stay informed today and every day
Subscribe to The Economist's free e-mail newsletters and alerts.
Subscribe to The Economist's latest article postings on Twitter
See a selection of The Economist's articles, events, topical videos and debates on Facebook.
Classified ads
Readers' comments
Reader comments are listed below. Comments are currently closed and new comments are no longer being accepted.
Sort:
"Most worryingly, the researchers also found several animals, including the Persian leopard, the North American striped skunk and a handful of other small carnivores, that carry both receptors and are thus likely to be dangerous when it comes to viral mixing."
I am not worried at all about Persian Leopard or skunks.
The Persian Leopard is close to extinction in the wild. If it survives at all it is because it is keeping well away from people. As for the Striped Skunk, well people themselves tend to keep well away from those. If these two viruses combine it is likely to be in a human or pig. Hundreds of millions of humans live in close proximity to chickens and pigs. The danger from wildlife is negligible.
While this research is interesting, some of the conclusions reached by the authors stand in contrast to previous findings. For example not only are raccoons exposed to influenza viruses, Hall and coworkers clearly demonstrated in an article in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases 14:1842 (2008) that the animals carry the appropriate receptors to influenza.