A new study states that animals such as pigs and ferrets are very vulnerable to the H7N9 Avian Influenza Virus.
In a recent study conducted by Chinese and U.S. scientists, virus isolated from a person who died of H7N9 avian influenza infection was used to find out whether the virus could infect and be transmitted between ferrets.
Scientists doing research on influenza often use ferrets as their models because they can efficiently transmit the virus between these animals, and helps in understanding how such viruses may be transmitted between people.
For the study, scientists inserted H7N9 virus into the noses of 6 ferrets and put them in a cage. The next day they placed three uninfected ferrets in the same cage as the infected ones and three of them outside but near the cage. Scientists found that while all three ferrets placed inside the cage became infected with the virus, only one ferret that was outside the cage was infected. By this they concluded that the virus is transmittable more by close contact and less by air.
Viral material in the nasal secretions of the ferrets was detected one day before clinical signs of disease became apparent. A similar experiment was carried out on pigs. However, unlike the ferrets, infected pigs in this small study did not transmit virus to uninfected pigs, either through direct contact or by air.
The infected animals in the study showed mild signs of illness, such as sneezing, nasal lethargy and discharge, but no serious illness was reported.
