Scientists in the United States have identified a new strain of influenza in harbour seals that could potentially impact human and animal health.
The H3N8 flu has been associated with the deaths of harbour seals in New England last year.
Researchers say the virus may have evolved from a type that had been circulating in birds.
They say the discovery highlights the potential for pandemic flu to emerge from unexpected sources.
Autopsies on five of the marine mammals indicate that they died from a type of H3N8 influenza A virus that is closely related to a strain circulating in North American birds since 2002.
One of authors of the research paper is Prof Ian Lipkin, from Columbia University in the US. He is a celebrated virus hunter who in the past has helped identify West Nile virus and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). He told the BBC that finding this flu virus in seals was an interesting "new jump".
Cause for concern
As well as mutating to live in both animals and birds the scientists say this flu has evolved to make it more likely to cause severe symptoms. The virus also has the ability to target a protein found in the human respiratory tract.
Dr Anne Moscona of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City edited the report and says that the new virus is a worry.
"There is a concern that we have a new mammalian-transmissable virus to which humans haven't yet been exposed. It's a combination we haven't seen in disease before."
One of the big concerns for Prof Lipklin is that seals are acting as a mixing vessel for viruses in a way that has previously happened in pigs.
"What was interesting about this is the seals are acting as an intermerdiary - they have receptors for both bird flu viruses and well as mammalian flu viruses, so you have a host in which this virus can adapt, evolve and become more mammalian in phenotype and more capable of causing disease in mammals.
SOURCE: BBC NEWS; 31st July, 2012
MAGONJWA YANAONGEZEKA DUNIANI
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