Shots - Health Blog Tue September 11, 2012 Two Mutations Can
Transform A Swine Flu Virus Flu pandemics don't happen very
often. So many people might feel the relative fizzle of a flu
pandemic three years ago somehow immunizes the globe against
another one for awhile. But don't relax, say the authors of a
report published online in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences. The scientists detail how a swine flu virus
currently circulating in Korea — without apparently making the
pigs sick — quickly changed into a deadly flu virus when it was
put into ferrets. That mammal is considered most like humans
when it comes to influenza. Once in ferrets, the virus acquired
two new mutations that somehow conferred unusual virulence.
Infected ferrets died within 10 days and transmitted the virus
easily to other animals in respiratory droplets. The mutations
occurred in all three ferrets infected with the Korean pig
virus. "It turned into a really nasty virus," study author Rob
Webster told Shots. To be sure, th