Awhile ago, I mentioned at lunch that what we know as the flu is spread around the world by wild ducks and fowl migrating. I was challenged on this, and now I’m trying to find out if this is as accurate as I thought. So far, all I’ve been able to find out is that there is indeed flu in wild fowl, called Avian Influenza, but I haven’t been able to figure out if our flu does come from wild fowl migrating.
Anybody know the short answer to this question? Are wild fowl the vector for human influenza, or have I gotten Avian Influenza and Human Influenza mixed up? CRorex, where are you?
(I Am Not An Epidemiologist, But Obsessed With Contagious Disease. But, oddly, not scared of contracting it.)
Birds do indeed have influenzas, as do many other kinds of living things.
But influenzas only rarely “jump the species barrier”. When they do, the effects are usually horrifying.
Bird migration is one of the possible explainations for 'flu transmission. It would explain why “flu season” occurs. But that species barrier thing causes problems.
Hope that this was slightly helpful, & that CRorex won’t laugh too loud.
Part of it is that in Southern China you wind up with pigs and ducks and people all mixed together sharing homes, food and … sanitation. The environment lends presents a golden opportunity for the adventurous virus to hope species with the pigs (I believe) acting as the incubator.
I did discover in my researches that Influenza A is carried by fowl, and it does pass to humans, but I’m not sure if this is what we know as human influenza or if it is a different strain. Pigs were also mentioned; it seems that pigs and humans pass a few viruses back and forth too.