I learned a lot about bird flu by reading this overview. Did you know that every time a major bird flu pandemic occurs, that strain takes over as the new yearly seasonal flu, dethroning the previous?
While this isn’t incorrect, it’s also not the full story. Influenza is an intricate virus, with mutations and obfuscation built into it’s reproduction cycle. A virus that kills it’s host is not a good virus, as a virus relies on it’s host to reproduce. This is why the flu is the most deadly when it initially gains a new host species. But over time, it will mutate to become less deadly for the host, allowing it to spread more effectively. Additionally, whenever an organism is infected with two different flu viruses, they can conduct reassortment and generate novel flu variations. So overtime, the flu will become less lethal via mutations, making it different from the orginal. Most flu variations stem from bird flu’s due to the migratory patterns of birds. But they then mutate substantially, otherwise they’ll be unable to infect more host. Meaning, it’s not the same flu, but more so the jumping off point of new variations which can combine with others or mutate by themselves just depending on the specific environment.
That is interesting information, but I think what I said was correct though. I don’t mean to say that the strain takes over and doesn’t mutate thereafter.
For sure, that’s what I said off the rip. But the flu variant which takes over isn’t the initial variant, as the high mortality rate coincides with low transmissibility. It’s the result of various point mutations and genetic reassortments to the first version which humans were susceptible to. But ya, potato potatoe, I’m just a nerd when it comes micro.
I learned a lot about bird flu by reading this overview. Did you know that every time a major bird flu pandemic occurs, that strain takes over as the new yearly seasonal flu, dethroning the previous?
While this isn’t incorrect, it’s also not the full story. Influenza is an intricate virus, with mutations and obfuscation built into it’s reproduction cycle. A virus that kills it’s host is not a good virus, as a virus relies on it’s host to reproduce. This is why the flu is the most deadly when it initially gains a new host species. But over time, it will mutate to become less deadly for the host, allowing it to spread more effectively. Additionally, whenever an organism is infected with two different flu viruses, they can conduct reassortment and generate novel flu variations. So overtime, the flu will become less lethal via mutations, making it different from the orginal. Most flu variations stem from bird flu’s due to the migratory patterns of birds. But they then mutate substantially, otherwise they’ll be unable to infect more host. Meaning, it’s not the same flu, but more so the jumping off point of new variations which can combine with others or mutate by themselves just depending on the specific environment.
That is interesting information, but I think what I said was correct though. I don’t mean to say that the strain takes over and doesn’t mutate thereafter.
For sure, that’s what I said off the rip. But the flu variant which takes over isn’t the initial variant, as the high mortality rate coincides with low transmissibility. It’s the result of various point mutations and genetic reassortments to the first version which humans were susceptible to. But ya, potato potatoe, I’m just a nerd when it comes micro.
That’s a great info dump, thanks for posting.