Bird Flu Research News

September 29, 2023

Top Headlines

Flu: Interferon-Gamma from T Follicular Helper Cells Is Required to Create Lung-Resident Memory B Cells

Sep. 13, 2023 — During a bout of influenza, B cells interact with other immune cells and then take different paths to defend the body. One path is the B cells that differentiate into lung-resident memory B cells, or ...

Bird Flu Is Undergoing Changes That Could Increase the Risk of Widespread Human Transmission

Sep. 5, 2023 — A new study has shown that a subtype of avian flu virus, endemic in poultry farms in China, is undergoing mutational changes, which could increase the risk of the disease being passed on to ...

Molecules in Vegetables Can Help to Ease Lung Infection

Aug. 16, 2023 — Researchers have found that molecules in vegetables like broccoli or cauliflower help to maintain a healthy barrier in the lung and ease ...

Mutation Accessibility Fuels Influenza Evolution

July 28, 2023 — Scientists showed that fixed mutations within a viral population most likely stem from how easy it is to acquire that mutation (i.e., mutation accessibility) rather than just its ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:07pm EDT

'Swine Flu' Strain Has Passed from Humans to Swine Nearly 400 Times Since 2009

July 27, 2023 — A new study of the strain of influenza A responsible for the 2009 H1N1 pandemic -- pdm09 -- shows that the virus has passed from humans to swine ...

Study Explores How Often Children Diagnosed With Flu Experience Serious Neuropsychiatric Side Effects

July 24, 2023 — While the incidence of influenza-associated neuropsychiatric events in children in the United States is unknown, the controversy over the use of a ...

How the Flu Virus Hacks Our Cells

May 31, 2023 — Influenza epidemics, caused by influenza A or B viruses, result in acute respiratory infection. They kill half a million people worldwide every year. These viruses can also wreak havoc on animals, as ...

Genetic Change Increased Bird Flu Severity During U.S. Spread

May 30, 2023 — Scientists found the virus strains that arrived in 2021 soon acquired genes from viruses in wild birds in North America. The resulting reassortant viruses have spread across the continent and caused ...

Study Shows Key Role for Human T Cells in the Control of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Infection

May 24, 2023 — A new study has shown that human T cells have an important role to play in controlling ...

Why This Bird Flu Is Different: Scientists Say New Avian Influenza Requires Urgent Coordinated Response

Apr. 19, 2023 — A new study tracks arrival and spread of highly pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1) decimating wild birds, impacting poultry and pushing up egg prices. ...

First Nations Populations at Greater Risk of Severe Flu, Research Finds

Apr. 13, 2023 — New research has found that First Nations populations around the world are significantly more likely to be hospitalized and die from influenza compared to non-Indigenous ...

Memory B Cell Marker Predicts Long-Lived Antibody Response to Flu Vaccine

Mar. 22, 2023 — Memory B cells play a critical role to provide long-term immunity after a vaccination or infection. Researchers have now described a distinct and novel subset of memory B cells that predict ...

Bird Flu Associated With Hundreds of Seal Deaths in New England in 2022

Mar. 15, 2023 — Researchers have found that an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was associated with the deaths of more than 330 New England harbor and gray seals along the North Atlantic coast in ...

Bald Eagles Aren't Fledging as Many Chicks Due to Avian Influenza

Mar. 2, 2023 — Bald eagles are often touted as a massive conservation success story due to their rebound from near extinction in the 1960s. But now a highly infectious virus may put that hard-fought comeback in ...

Earlier Headlines

Summaries
Headlines

Is It COVID-19 or the Flu? New Sensor Could Tell You in 10 Seconds

Mar. 28, 2023 — Have a cough, sore throat and congestion? Any number of respiratory viruses could be responsible. Today, scientists report using a single-atom-thick nanomaterial to build a device that can ...

New Vaccine Platform Could Ease Development, Delivery of Virus-Fighters

Jan. 30, 2023 — By repurposing one of the human body's natural cargo transports, a research team has developed a vaccine platform that could curb certain engineering challenges, storage demands and side effects ...

Avian Flu Could Decimate Australian Black Swans

Jan. 22, 2023 — The unique genetics of the Australian black swan leaves the species vulnerable to viral illnesses such as avian flu, new research has ...

Developing Mucosal Vaccines for Respiratory Viruses

Jan. 11, 2023 — Vaccines that provide long-lasting protection against influenza, coronaviruses and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) have proved exceptionally difficult to develop. Researchers now explore the ...

Effects of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza on Canids Investigated

Jan. 4, 2023 — Researchers have revealed the effects of high pathogenicity avian influenza virus infection on an Ezo red fox and a Japanese raccoon dog, linking their infection to a recorded die-off of ...

Temperature, Nearby Species Could Affect Avian Flu Transmission in Migrating Birds

Nov. 9, 2022 — Finding a turkey this holiday season could be difficult because of avian flu outbreaks on farms. Migratory wild birds could be to blame for transmitting the virus to commercial flocks, but no one has ...

Intensified Meat Production in Response to Climate Change Would Bring Short-Term Rewards, Long-Term Risks

Nov. 2, 2022 — As climate change threatens global food supplies, countries will need to increase the efficiency of food production, bringing about short-term gains, such as decreased deforestation, but long-term ...

Universal Flu Vaccine Protects Against Variants of Both Influenza A and B Viruses, Researchers Find

Aug. 25, 2022 — A new universal flu vaccine protects against diverse variants of both influenza A and B viruses in mice, according to a new ...

Why Some Flu Viruses Cause More Severe Infections

July 21, 2022 — Research uses computational modeling to try to understand the body's immune response to avian flu. His latest work finds that the levels of interferon may be responsible for its more severe ...

Universal Influenza B Vaccine Induces Broad, Sustained Protection, Biomedical Sciences Researchers Find

July 8, 2022 — A new universal flu vaccine protects against influenza B viruses, offering broad defense against different strains and improved immune protection, according to a new ...

New Way to Identify Influenza A Virus Lights Up When Specific Virus Targets Are Present

June 6, 2022 — In order to quickly detect the presence of the influenza A virus, researchers developed a fluorogenic probe that could bind to the promoter region. A fluorogenic probe uses tiny molecules called ...

Avian Influenza: How It's Spreading and What to Know About This Outbreak

May 19, 2022 — A new study takes a data-driven look at influenza viruses circulating among different groups of birds and characterizes which types of birds are involved in spreading the virus. This paper publishes ...

Type-I Interferon Stops Immune System 'Going Rogue' During Viral Infections

May 17, 2022 — Researchers have discovered that Type I interferon (IFN) plays a key role in helping the immune system effectively target viruses, while stopping white blood cells from 'going rogue' and ...

Flu Causes Cardiac Complications by Directly Infecting the Heart

May 11, 2022 — Researchers have shown for the first time in mice that heart problems associated with the flu are not caused by raging inflammation in the lungs, as has long been predicted. Instead, the electrical ...

Global Bird Populations Steadily Declining

May 5, 2022 — Staggering declines in bird populations are taking place around the world. So concludes a study from scientists at multiple institutions. Loss and degradation of natural habitats and direct ...

Universal Flu Vaccine Candidate

Mar. 29, 2022 — Scientists have leveraged on a novel vaccine platform to deliver M2e to immune cells. This allowed them to prove that a single shot immunization containing M2e was able to trigger long-lasting immune ...

New Nasal Spray Treats Delta Variant Infection in Mice, Indicating Broad Spectrum Results

Mar. 28, 2022 — Researchers have shown a new compound delivered in a nasal spray is highly effective in preventing and treating COVID-19 caused by the Delta variant in mice. The researchers believe this is the first ...

Flu Virus Shells Could Improve Delivery of mRNA Into Cells

Nov. 30, 2021 — Nanoengineers have developed a new and potentially more effective way to deliver messenger RNA (mRNA) into cells. Their approach involves packing mRNA inside nanoparticles that mimic the flu virus -- ...

New Technique Better Assesses Exposure of a Population to a Virus

Nov. 22, 2021 — Accurately assessing the exposure of a population to a particular virus is difficult because the tools for doing so do not account for the fact that many viruses comprise multiple circulating ...

Flu and Heart Disease: The Surprising Connection That Should Convince You to Schedule Your Shot

Oct. 15, 2021 — Patients who have cardiovascular disease are at increased risk of serious complications from the flu, according to a new study. The study found that not only are traditional flu-related outcomes ...

Tuesday, March 28, 2023