(JP) Bird flu here linked to '96 China strain

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http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040206a5.htm

 

Bird flu here linked to '96 China strain

Japan's H5N1 virus deemed 97% identical to deadly

Guangdong variety

 

The bird flu virus that has led to the deaths of tens

of thousands of chickens in Japan and Vietnam is

closely related to the one discovered at a goose farm

in China's Guangdong Province in 1996, Japanese

researchers said Thursday.

 

The virus found in China is called Gd96 and gave rise

to the H5N1 strain, the researchers said. The H5N1

virus led to the outbreak of bird flu in Honk Kong in

1997 that killed six people.

 

The viral strain found recently in Yamaguchi

Prefecture is also H5N1.

 

The researchers believe it is highly likely that the

current outbreak originated in China.

 

The National Institute of Animal Health in Japan

compared genes isolated from samples taken from

infected chickens in Yamaguchi with genes of other

H5N1 viruses found in other countries.

 

The researchers found the base sequence of the HA

gene, which determines virus types, was 97 percent

identical with the base sequence of the virus that

caused the death of a man in Hong Kong in February

2003.

 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

found that the HA strain of the virus found last year

in Honk Kong is closely related to the Gd96 virus.

 

The HA gene of the virus in Japan is 97 percent

similar to the gene of the virus now common in

Vietnam, the researchers said.

 

The bird flu viruses in Japan and Vietnam are not

exactly the same, but both their genes have the Gd96

genetic lineage, they said.

 

In Hong Kong, the Gd96 virus was continually found in

ducks and geese exported from China since 1997.

 

The Japan Times: Feb. 6, 2004

 

 

 

 

 

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