H7N7 – a new strain of avian flu virus found in China (H7N7病毒)

According to the Epoch Times (link see below) there’s a new strain of pneumonia virus (H7N7), which might be more dangerous than the H7N9 strain, which caused 135 infections and 40 deaths earlier this year (研究：中国市场发现H7N7病毒. 更易感染给人).

The new strain can kill birds and ferrets alike, which means that it can also spread to humans. The new strain has been found while checking  poultry for H7N9. Prof. Guan Yi of Hongkong University and his team found the new strain H7N7 in Wenzhou City of Zhejiang Province.  

Sohu Health quotes Bitish media, that “new studies confirm H7N9 avian flu virus originated from chickens” (新研究确认H7N9禽流感病毒源自家鸡).

There’s also an article in the Guardian (luckily this laptop hadn’t been smashed to pieces): “New H7N7 bird flu strain discovered that could pose threat to humans”.

Right now there hasn’t been a report on humans being infected. Let’s hope it stays this way.

Links:

Epoch Times / Chinese article (22.08.2013):

http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/13/8/22/n3947075.htm%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6-%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E5%B8%82%E5%9C%BA%E5%8F%91%E7%8E%B0H7N7%E7%97%85%E6%AF%92-%E6%9B%B4%E6%98%93%E6%84%9F%E6%9F%93%E7%BB%99%E4%BA%BA.html

Blog post on H7N9: http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2013/04/new-strain-of-bird-flu-h7n9.html

Guardian 21.08.2013: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/21/new-h7n7-bird-flu-strain-discovered-china


26.08.2013
Nothing new, one Chinese source translated a German text of Spiegel-Online into Chinese: http://de.hujiang.com/new/p526967/.
No news on this subject mean good news.

03.09.2013
You might be wondering about the recent discovery of H7N7 virus in poultry in Northern Italy. The virus has been found on two poultry farms. This virus has no connection to the one found in China. There's good information on all aspects, even on the genome, very interesting reading:
http://ec.europa.eu/food/animal/diseases/controlmeasures/avian/docs/20130827-105434_hpai_h7n7_italy.pdf