Health Articles : Infections : Bird Flu
Bird Flu Virus : Bird Flu Virus
Asian Bird FluBird flu is defined as influenza caused in birds. It is also known as Avian Influenza. Bird flu is a ..... Bird flu virus is also known as avian influenza virus. This virus is responsible for the life threatening bird flu disease. Bird flu virus is not naturally generated in humans. It is naturally originated in wild birds. Wild birds carry this virus in their intestine. These birds do not get affected by this virus very often. This virus is transmitted from wild birds to domesticated birds and sometimes to humans. Bird flu virus has severely affected the poultry business in Asia. It has also taken away many lives around the world. Bird flu virus is very dangerous but it is not easily transmitted to humans. The symptoms of the infection to this virus are similar to normal influenza. The normal symptoms are fever, cough, sore throat and muscle aches. There are many types and subtypes of this virus. All these types of bird flu virus are equally dangerous.
There are mainly three types of bird flu viruses: A, B, and C. In all these types only influenza A viruses are further classified by subtypes on the basis of the two main surface Glycoproteins- Hemagglutinin and Neuraminidase. Bird flu virus A subtypes and B viruses are also classified by strains. There are various types of strains of influenza B viruses and of influenza A subtypes. New strains of bird flu viruses appear and that replaces older strains. Humans can be infected any type of bird flu viruses. The most common subtypes of bird flu virus that are circulating worldwide are H1N1, H1N2, H1N3 and H5N1 viruses.
Bird Flu MortalityBird influenza is an infectious disease of birds caused by type A strains of the influenza virus. The disease takes place worldwide. While all ..... Bird flu virus is very dynamic and the growth of this virus is also very fast. This virus changes into two different ways. The ways are antigenic shift and antigenic drift. Mostly bird flu virus changes in the antigenic drift and occasionally to antigenic shift. Antigenic drift may refer to small, gradual changes at the time of mutation in the two genes that produces the proteins, Hemagglutinin, and Neuraminidase. Antigenic shift refers to a major change in the structure of the virus. Due to these changes, it is difficult for the antibodies to fight against the bird flu viruses.
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