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Science is collaborative
Science is collaborative
Role of Credibility: the researchers all work at prestigious universities
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Virus's attempt to escape detection proves unsuccessful
Researchers have found a new avian flu virus. This asymptomatic flu was found in the Adélie penguins of Antarctica, and has yet to be found in any other birds around the world. This flu has been designated the H11N2 virus. H11N2 shares some resemblance with a strain of flu the was present in the Americas in the 1960s and 1980s. In this study, 301 penguins were tested and less than 3% carried the flu virus. The is the first bird flu virus to be identified in Antarctica, which opens up the possibility of Antarctica being a breeding ground for new strains of flu viruses.
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It's cool that this lines up so nicely with our learning about viruses. It hadn't occurred to me that penguins could harvest a flu. It makes complete sense but I wouldn't have thought of it. Down in the desperately cold antarctic it's amazing anything survives. Kinda proves the ability of a virus.
ReplyDeleteLike JJ said, nice correlation between what we are covering in class and this article, well done. And having recently watched the movie Contagion, this whole unit is kinda creeping me out. Im glad the virus has only been found in antartica thus far, and I hope it stays there.
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