Hybrid influenza viruses may have pandemic potential

摘要

The H1N1 influenza virus that spawned the 2009 pandemic is now predicted to circulate as a seasonal flu. However, researchers fear it could once again present a major public health threat by recombining with the H9N2 virus, which is endemic to several bird species in Asia, and has infected pigs and humans. Yipeng Sun et al. (pp. 4164-4169,) explored this possibility by dissecting the H1N1/2009 and H9N2 influenza viruses, and systematically mixing their genes to generate 127 hybrid viruses.