Birds and the Flu #
April 27th, 2009 | In Worth Knowing
I know I know. Pigs! Flu! Pandemic! Mexico! Death! But this was news to me:
Birds are known to carry every single one of the 144 varieties of influenza virus, as defined by the shape of their surface proteins (ranging from the H1N1 strain to H16N9). For this reason, most scientists believe that all forms of the virus originated in birds and every flu is on some level a kind of bird flu.
UPDATE: This seems relevant, if not contradictory, to the above: Swine Flu Genes From Pigs Only. I suppose it’s partly a question of how generously you define “originated.”