One Health Publications

Tuberculosis in humans and its epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment in the United States.

October 13, 2010

One Health in ACTION:   Tuberculosis in humans and its epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment in the United States.   By LoBue P A, Enarson D A, Thoen T C. [Drs. LoBue and Enarson are physicians and Dr. Thoen is a veterinarian]    [Serialised article. Tuberculosis: a re-emerging disease in animals and humans. Number 2 in the series].   http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2010/00000014/00000010/art00003 or directly to the pdf http://docstore.ingenta.com/cgi-bin/ds_deliver/1/u/d/ISIS/59079724.1/iuatld/ijtld/2010/00000014/00000010/art00003/98AD5921E923C679128691907279B9992734719843.pdf?link=http://www.ingentaconnect.com/error/delivery&format=pdf   Provided by: Clare Pierard | Managing EditorInternational Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IJTLD)International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease68, boulevard Saint-Michel | 75006 Paris | France Tel: (+33) 1 44 32 03 60 | Fax: (+33) 1 43 29 90 83CPierard@theunion.org | journal@theunion.org | www.theunion.orghttp://www.ingentaconnect.com/journals/browse/iuatld/ijtld

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Case report: West-Nile virus infection in two Dutch travellers returning from Israel

October 11, 2010

Eurosurveillance, Volume 15, Issue 34, 26 August 2010   Case report: West-Nile virus infection in two Dutch travellers returning from Israel N Aboutaleb1, M FC Beersma2, H F Wunderink3, A CTM Vossen3, L G Visser1 1.       Department of Infectious Diseases, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, Netherlands 2.       Department of Virology, Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, Netherlands 3.       Department of Virology, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, Netherlands We report about West Nile virus (WNV) infections in a symptomatic traveller returning from Israel and in her asymptomatic travel companion. Knowledge of the current epidemiological situation in Israel from where WNV cases were reported recently enabled a rapid diagnosis. The described cases serve as a reminder for physicians to consider WNV in the diagnosis of patients returning from areas with potential circulation of the virus. Read More: http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=19649  

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Virginia Tech Professor [veterinarian] discovers new TB pathogen

October 7, 2010

  vetsweb.com Virginia Tech Professor [veterinarian] discovers new TB pathogen Oct 4 2010 Kathleen Alexander [DVM, PhD], associate professor of wildlife in Virginia Techs College of Natural Resources and Environment, discovered a novel tuberculosis (TB) species in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. …   Read more: http://www.vetsweb.com/news/virginia-tech-professor-discovers-new-tb-pathogen-1497.html   “Dr. Alexanders main research deals with the human – biodiversity interface at the individual as well as population and landscape levels. She is using a multidisciplinary approach to increase our ability to manage and maintain healthy ecosystems that support both biodiversity and human populations. The focal areas of her research are the human biodiversity interface as related to either infectious diseases or ecosystem management. She is examining changes in human health in Africa as related to emerging infectious diseases with the goal of understanding pathogens and processes of change in multi-host ecosystems. In addition, she is identifying the spatial and temporal dynamics of human-wildlife conflict at the landscape level using remote sensing and modeling to identify the predicative determinants and processes that shape species distribution and conflict incidence.”  Please see http://www.fishwild.vt.edu/faculty/alexander.htm.

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West Nile virus: the need to strengthen preparedness in Europe – August 26, 2010

October 5, 2010

Eurosurveillance, Volume 15, Issue 34, 26 August 2010   Editorials   West Nile virus: the need to strengthen preparedness in Europe H Zeller1, A Lenglet1, W Van Bortel1 1.       European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Stockholm, Sweden Citation style for this article: Zeller H, Lenglet A, Van Bortel W. West Nile virus: the need to strengthen preparedness in Europe. Euro Surveill. 2010;15(34):pii=19647. Available online: http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=19647 “The ongoing outbreak of West Nile virus (WNV) infections in humans in Greece described in this issue of Eurosurveillance is a timely reminder that WNV is a re-emerging pathogen in Europe [1]. So far, WNV has been documented in animals and humans in several countries across Europe, mainly in central Europe and in the Mediterranean region. Over the last 15 years, outbreaks in horses and/or humans were reported from Romania, Hungary and Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece [2]. “  …   READ MORE: http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=19647

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Ongoing outbreak of West Nile virus infections in humans in Greece, July – August 2010

September 28, 2010

 Eurosurveillance, Volume 15, Issue 34, 26 August 2010   Ongoing outbreak of West Nile virus infections in humans in Greece, July -  August 2010 A Papa1, K Danis, A Baka2, A Bakas3, G Dougas2, T Lytras2, G Theocharopoulos2, D Chrysagis3, E Vassiliadou3, F Kamaria3, A Liona2, K Mellou2, G Saroglou2, T Panagiotopoulos2,4 1.       Reference Laboratory for Arboviruses, First Department of Microbiology, Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece 2.       Hellenic Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (KEELPNO), Athens, Greece 3.       Department of Internal Medicine, Infectious Disease Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece 4.       National School of Public Health, Athens, Greece Between early July and 22 August 2010, 81 cases of West Nile neuroinvasive disease were reported in the region of Central Macedonia, northern Greece. The median age of cases was 70 years. Encephalitis, meningoencephalitis or aseptic meningitis occurred mainly in patients aged 50 years or older. This is the first time that West Nile virus (WNV) infection has been documented in humans in Greece. Enhanced surveillance and mosquito control measures have been implemented. Read More: http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=19644

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Rabies Webinar: September 28, 2010

September 27, 2010

Rabies Webinar: September 28, 2010 Learn about the important public health issue of rabies; including the successes and challenges to implementing effective rabies prevention and control strategies.    Sample Topics:   ·         Webinar #2: 9:50-9:55am (EST) The One Health Initiative - Global Clearinghouse for Activities Involving Rabies and Other Zoonoses (Dr. Jack Woodall, One Health Initiative website team member), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.) ·          Rabies Control in India-Challenges and Strategies (Dr S.R. Garg, College of Veterinary Science, Hisar) ·          Lessons Learned from Dog Vaccinations in Tanzania (Dr Katie Hampson, University of Glasgow) ·          Alliances for Rabies Elimination in the Americas (Luis Fernando Leanes, PAHO/PANAFTOSA)   There is no cost to attend the webinars but you will need to register for each webinar separately.  Register Here Or http://www.worldrabiesday.org/EN/Events/wrd-webinar.html      “Understanding Rabies” – Video Release In observance of World Rabies Day, the Global Alliance for Rabies Control is pleased to offer a seven segment video series entitled, Understanding Rabies. These short educational videos cover the following topics: What is Rabies?, What animals are most likely to be rabid?, Rabies symptoms, Rabies diagnosis, Preventing rabies, World Rabies Day and Rabies medical research.  We invite you to view our videos and share them as part of your outreach for World Rabies Day and beyond!   Watch the Videos: http://www.worldrabiesday.org/EN/media_center/videos.html   World Rabies Day eMedia Help spread the word about rabies prevention and World Rabies Day! Add a button to your Web site that shows what you are doing to stay rabies free and send a Health e-Card to let others know how they can help prevent rabies.   Visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eMedia Site: http://www.cdc.gov/worldrabiesday/eMedia.html

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Center integrates human, animal, environmental health – September 16, 2010

September 22, 2010

Public release date: 16-Sep-2010Contact: Diana Yatesdiya@illinois.edu217-333-5802 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA)   Center integrates human, animal, environmental health CHAMPAIGN, lll. — The Center for One Health Illinois, established at the University of Illinois last year with a $250,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will receive another $500,000 in grants over several years from the USDA to pursue its mission of fostering collaborations and the free flow of information among those in the fields of medicine, public health, the environment and agriculture.     The center has three areas of engagement: educating a new cadre of cross-trained public health practitioners, working with public health agencies to improve disease surveillance, and fostering collaborative research.     In 2004, the College of Veterinary Medicine and the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois in Chicago established a joint degree program that allows students to complete a masters degree in public health concurrent with their studies for a doctorate in veterinary medicine. The DVM/MPH program has enrolled 33 students so far, four of whom have completed both degrees, and is part of a national trend that recognizes the interdependence of human and animal health.     A growing awareness of zoonotic diseases, which originate in animals but can spread to humans, has contributed to this trend. More than 60 percent of the 1,400 pathogens that affect people originate, or are amplified, in other animals.   Although many of these diseases must be reported to local and state health departments when humans are infected, veterinarians are not alerted to their occurrence, said John Herrmann, a professor of clinical veterinary medicine who directs the DVM/MPH program at Illinois. Similarly, veterinarians report outbreaks of many of the same diseases to agricultural officials, but those officials have no system for passing the information to public health agencies.     The state agriculture department and the state health department are only a few blocks from each other in Springfield, Herrmann said. But we still dont have an integrated surveillance system for sharing information.     Herrmann led the effort to create the Center for One Health Illinois, which is tackling this gap in surveillance by recruiting experts to build a system for sharing environmental and health data. Earlier this year the center brought potential partners together for a conference. Among the many ideas shared, participants discussed the barriers to quick and efficient data sharing.     An outcome of that discussion was the creation of a demonstration project to develop an integrated surveillance system. The project involves experts at the local health department, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at Illinois and the College of Veterinary Medicine.     The center also has funded a few small-scale research projects. These include an initiative aimed at comparing the ecological impacts of small and large dairy operations; a geographic and ecological analysis of rabies in bats in Illinois; a study of microbial contamination in relation to food establishments with and without health code violations in Champaign and Urbana; and a study of human and animal trichinella infections on small hog farms in Romania. The center seeks to fund new studies that integrate human, animal, agricultural and/or ecosystem health.     The USDA funding has allowed the center to also increase the public health exposure of our students, Herrmann said.     It funds externships for some DVM/MPH students at the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the USDA, the Food and Drug Administration and various other federal and state agencies. It also supplements course budgets so students can do more site visits and participate in outbreak investigations. For example, Herrmann recently took students to a poultry operation in northwest Illinois to do some environmental sampling. Other students traveled to Germany to visit and learn about a foreign animal disease facility and the German equivalent of our CDC, Herrmann said. In a world of increasing environmental pressures and burgeoning agricultural needs, Herrmann said, human communities can no longer afford to segregate their understanding of these influences on human health.     Many of the determinants and contributing factors to human health are environmental in nature, including how our food is produced, Herrmann said. So the safety of food and other consumer products is really important, as is the sustainability of those production systems. Emerging diseases, whether infectious or non-infectious, are also often associated with changes in our natural or built environment. We need to look at all these things, how theyre all interrelated.   ###   Editors note: To contact Dr. John Herrmann, e-mail jah1110@illinois.edu.     http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-09/uoia-cih091610.php

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Emerging Infectious Disease Leads to Rapid Population Declines of Common British Birds

September 20, 2010

  Emerging Infectious Disease Leads to Rapid Population Declines of Common British Birds. PLoS ONE 5(8): e12215. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0012215 Robinson RA, Lawson B, Toms MP, Peck KM, Kirkwood JK, et al. (2010) ABSTRACT: Emerging infectious diseases are increasingly cited as threats to wildlife, livestock and humans alike. They can threaten geographically isolated or critically endangered wildlife populations; however, relatively few studies have clearly demonstrated the extent to which emerging diseases can impact populations of common wildlife species. Here, we report the impact of an emerging protozoal disease on British populations of greenfinch Carduelis chloris and chaffinch Fringilla coelebs, two of the most common birds in Britain. Morphological and molecular analyses showed this to be due to Trichomonas gallinae. Trichomonosis emerged as a novel fatal disease of finches in Britain in 2005 and rapidly became epidemic within greenfinch, and to a lesser extent chaffinch, populations in 2006. By 2007, breeding populations of greenfinches and chaffinches in the geographic region of highest disease incidence had decreased by 35% and 21% respectively, representing mortality in excess of half a million birds. In contrast, declines were less pronounced or absent in these species in regions where the disease was found in intermediate or low incidence. Also, populations of dunnock Prunella modularis, which similarly feeds in gardens, but in which T. gallinae was rarely recorded, did not decline. This is the first trichomonosis epidemic reported in the scientific literature to negatively impact populations of free-ranging non-columbiform species, and such levels of mortality and decline due to an emerging infectious disease are unprecedented in British wild bird populations. This disease emergence event demonstrates the potential for a protozoan parasite to jump avian host taxonomic groups with dramatic effect over a short time period. Read more: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0012215

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Value of syndromic surveillance in monitoring a focal waterborne outbreak due to an unusual Cryptosporidium genotype in Northamptonshire, United Kingdom, June – July 2008

September 17, 2010

Eurosurveillance, Volume 15, Issue 33, 19 August 2010   Surveillance and outbreak reports   Value of syndromic surveillance in monitoring a focal waterborne outbreak due to an unusual Cryptosporidium genotype in Northamptonshire, United Kingdom, June - July 2008   http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=19643   S Smith 1, A J Elliot1, C Mallaghan2, D Modha3, J Hippisley-Cox4, S Large5, M Regan6, G E Smith1  

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September 14, 2010

Eurosurveillance, Volume 15, Issue 33, 19 August 2010 Surveillance and outbreak reports   Laboratory-based surveillance for Cryptosporidium in France, 2006–2009     http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=19642  

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One Health Brochure Available via PDF Attached – Features two informative One Health articles

September 10, 2010

One Health Brochure Available via PDF Attached   Features two informative One Health articles:   ·                          “One Health Initiative Interview” with Laura H. Kahn, MD, MPH, MPP ·                          Feature and Interview with The Jenner Vaccine Foundation Leaders – “Rethinking vaccination”   Published in International Innovation: June 2010 Healthcare Issue   Please see the link below…  http://www.research-europe.com/index.php/2010/07/dr-laura-kahn-on-the-one-health-initiative/   Note: The entire magazine may also be viewed via the following link  http://www.research-europe.com/magazine/HEALTHCARE/JUN10/pageflip.html   You may register on the Research Media website to gain full access to the entire publication, this is free and quick with your registration being approved within 24 hours.   “International Innovation is the leading global dissemination resource for the wider scientific, technology and research communities. Produced under four titles, each title serves a key scientific area that is of particular relevance in today’s global environment.” Click the link below to complete the online form to subscribe to the printed magazine.Research Media Subscription Form or http://www.research-europe.com/subscribe.php

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Conventional Beef Is Sustainable Beef

September 8, 2010

Bovine Veterinarian - 8/13/2010 Conventional Beef Is Sustainable Beef   Beef animals from conventional feedlots that use growth-enhancing technologies and grain-based rations are three times more land-efficient than grass-fed or organic animals, an Iowa State University study found. An analysis using data from 2007 also indicated that discontinuing the use of growth-enhancing technologies would lead to an 18% reduction in U.S. beef production.   Read more: http://www.bovinevetonline.com/newsCN.asp?contentid=1206246                                              • The world population is estimated to reach 9 billion by the middle of the 21st century.• The global demand for food will double by 2050 and there will continue to be increased per-capita demand for beef and other high-quality animal protein.• Worldwide, we have a limited land area on which to produce food, feed and fiber.• It is critical that we continue to conserve natural and biodiverse natural habitats.

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Paleoclimate and bubonic plague: a forewarning of future risk?

September 5, 2010

Commentary Paleoclimate and bubonic plague: a forewarning of future risk? Anthony J McMichael National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Building 62, Mills Road, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia BMC Biology 010, 8:108doi:10.1186/1741-7007-8-108 The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/8/108  Received: 23 August 2010 Accepted: 25 August 2010 Published: 27 August 2010 © 2010 McMichael; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Pandemics of bubonic plague have occurred in Eurasia since the sixth century AD. Climatic variations in Central Asia affect the population size and activity of the plague bacteriums reservoir rodent species, influencing the probability of human infection. Using innovative time-series analysis of surrogate climate records spanning 1,500 years, a study in BMC Biology concludes that climatic fluctuations may have influenced these pandemics. This has potential implications for health risks from future climate change. See research article http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/8/112 webcite

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Report published on factors contributing to the spread of Campylobacter in the European Union

September 2, 2010

Eurosurveillance, Volume 15, Issue 33, 19 August 2010 News Report published on factors contributing to the spread of Campylobacter in the European Union Eurosurveillance editorial team ( )1 1.        European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Stockholm, Sweden The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recently published a report on factors that may contribute to the spread of Campylobacter in live chickens and chicken carcasses. The findings of the report [1], based on an European Union (EU)-wide survey [2] will provide the basis for further work by scientific experts to investigate further how Campylobacter-contaminated chicken meat affects the levels of human campylobacteriosis. READ MORE: http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=19641

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A good One Health idea for Veterinary Medicine borrowed from human medical research?

August 30, 2010

Vetsweb.com - 24 Aug 2010   A good One Health idea for Veterinary Medicine borrowed from human medical research? Viral inhibitors: an additional tool to control classical swine fever http://www.vetsweb.com/background/viral-inhibitors-an-additional-tool-to-control-classical-swine-fever-1384.html

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One Health Newsletter – Summer Issue

August 26, 2010

The Summer issue of the One Health Newsletter is now posted online.    http://www.doh.state.fl.us/Environment/medicine/One_Health/OneHealth.html

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One Health Approach to Influenza: Assessment of Critical Issues and Options

August 24, 2010

Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal – U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Volume 16, Number 8–August 2010 Conference Summary One Health Approach to Influenza: Assessment of Critical Issues and Options1 Thomas F. Powdrill, Terry L. Nipp, and Jennifer L. Rinderknecht Author affiliation: Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA A task force of experts on influenza, public health, and animal health met at the conference One Health Approach to Influenza: Assessment of Critical Issues and Options in Washington, DC, on December 1–2, 2009. These experts discussed the role of the One Health approach in preparing for and responding to an influenza pandemic or other emerging zoonotic disease by using pandemic (H1N1) 2009 as a case study. The meeting was convened by the US Department of Homeland Security National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/National Institutes of Health Western Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases. The One Health concept is the realization that human, animal, and environmental health are interrelated. In practice, it is imperative to implement a One Health approach to high-consequence zoonotic diseases. Although pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus has primarily affected humans (with some documented human-to-animal transmission), the genesis of this circulating human virus involved reassortment of viral genomic segments from human, porcine, and avian influenza virus lineages. The task force focused on 4 topics: 1) epidemiology and surveillance, 2) transmission dynamics, 3) immunobiology and vaccines, and 4) molecular approaches and pathobiology.  READ MORE: http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/16/8/e1.htm

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August 20, 2010

“Cooperation between animal and human health sectors is key to the detection, surveillance, and control of emerging disease”: IMED 2007 meeting in Vienna, February 2007.   Eurosurveillance, Volume 11, Issue 51, 21 December 2006   By Larry Madoff, MD      Editor, ProMED-mail      Associate Professor of Medicine      Harvard Medical School      Boston, MA   http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=3101 Regrettably, despite this knowledge, and many dramatic recent examples such as Ebola virus, Lyme disease and SARS, the worlds of veterinary medicine and human health, including public health, remain quite separate. Schools and other training institutions, healthcare facilities, NGOs, public health agencies at all administrative levels, professional and scientific organisations, and journals nearly all remain segregated by their interests in either human medical or veterinary medical health. One of the rare examples that consistently deals with both is ProMED-mail...  August 19, 2010   John (Jack) Woodall, PhD, Director (retd.)Nucleus for the Investigation of Emerging Infectious Diseases Institute of Medical Biochemistry Center for Health Sciences Federal University Rio de Janeiro, Brazil   Dr. Woodall, a viral epidemiologist, is a co-founder and associate editor of ProMED-mail, the outbreak early warning system online of the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases of the International Society for Infectious Diseases. He became the contents manager/editor of the ProMED-mail section in the Kahn-Kaplan-Monath-Woodall One Health Initiative website http://www.onehealthinitiative.com in February 2009.

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Biological and Structural Characterization of a Host-Adapting Amino Acid in Influenza Virus

August 16, 2010

PloS Pathogens – Open Access   Citation: Yamada S, Hatta M, Staker BL, Watanabe S, Imai M, et al. (2010) Biological and Structural Characterization of a Host-Adapting Amino Acid in Influenza Virus. PLoS Pathog 6(8): e1001034. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1001034   Biological and Structural Characterization of a Host-Adapting Amino Acid in Influenza Virus Author Summary Influenza viruses that originate from avian species likely have to acquire adapting amino acid changes to replicate efficiently in mammals. Two amino acid changes in the polymerase PB2 protein—a glutamic acid to lysine change at position 627 or an aspartic acid to asparagine change at position 701—are known to allow influenza viruses of avian origin to replicate efficiently in mammals. Interestingly, the pandemic H1N1 viruses (which possess an avian-like PB2 gene) do not encode the ‘human-type’ amino acids PB2-627K and PB2-701N. Here, we report that a basic amino acid at position 591 of PB2 can compensate for the lack of PB2-627K and allows efficient replication of highly pathogenic H5N1 and pandemic H1N1 viruses in mammalian species. We also present the X-ray crystal structure of the C-terminal portion of a pandemic H1N1 PB2 protein. The basic amino acid at position 591 fills a distinctive cleft found in the PB2 proteins of H5N1 viruses. We also speculate on the biological significance of the altered surface of the H1N1 PB2 protein.  READ MORE: http://www.plospathogens.org/article/infodoi10.1371journal.ppat.1001034

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August 13, 2010

  Veterinaria Italiana Journal 2010 – Volume 46(2), April-June   Emerging diseases and implications for Millennium Development Goals in Africa by 2015 – an overview   Tagang Aluwong & Mohammed Bello     http://www.izs.it/vet_italiana/2010/46_2/137.htm

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