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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Animal Disease Center » Virus and Prion Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #411303
Research Project: Intervention Strategies to Control Endemic and New and Emerging Influenza A Virus Infections in Swine

Location: Virus and Prion Research

Title: The evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A virus at the human-animal interface

Author
item Anderson, Tavis
item MEDINA, RAFAEL - Emory University
item NELSON, MARTHA - National Institutes Of Health (NIH)

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/18/2024
Publication Date: 7/19/2024
Citation: Anderson, T.K., Medina, R., Nelson, M.I. 2024. The evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A virus at the human-animal interface. Book Chapter. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-28818-0.00016-1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-28818-0.00016-1

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: As the 1918 “Spanish flu” pandemic swept the world, killing more than 20 million people, American veterinarian J.S. Koen noticed pigs with suspiciously similar flu-like respiratory symptoms (Koen, 1919). Koen wondered if the pigs and people were infected with the same organism and, if so, whether pigs had transmitted the disease to people (zoonosis) or people had infected the pigs (reverse zoonosis). Over the next century, technological advances in genetic sequencing confirmed that the pigs and people in 1918 were infected with similar influenza A viruses of the H1N1 subtype (Shope, 1931), prompting questions about the human-animal interface. How frequently do humans and animals exchange pathogens? Is the transfer bidirectional? Or does animal-to-human transmission occur more frequently than human-to-animal? Rapidly evolving RNA viruses were found to be particularly adept at host-jumping and represent the bulk of emerging infectious diseases in humans, raising another suite of questions (Taylor et al., 2001). What molecular changes are required for viruses to invade new host cells that differ in acidity, surface receptors, and even routes of transmission? What evolutionary processes, such as recombination, help viruses make evolutionary leaps to infect new host species? The complicated global epidemiology of viruses circulating in animals and the implications for public health and pandemic planning are inextricably entangled, and are reviewed in this chapter.