1 p.m.: Group aims to raise death penalty awareness
Most of the group of protesters appeared to either be a part of or working in coalition with Death Penalty Alternatives for Arizona, a grassroots organization that aims to raise awareness about issues with the death penalty and seeks to abolish it.
Highly infectious H5N1 strain has killed 1.7 million birds across Canada
Michelle Ghoussoub · CBC News · Posted: May 10, 2022 5:00 AM PT | Last Updated: May 10
The province is urging poultry farmers to be vigilant and put preventative measures in place by eliminating contact with wild birds, reducing human access to the flock and increased cleaning and sanitization. (John Ulan/University of Alberta)
14
comments
As cases of avian flu continue to spread across Canada, B.C. poultry farmers are implementing quarantine measures to protect their chickens from the highly infectious virus that can cause mass death.
So far, an estimated 1.7 million birds have been euthanized or killed by the virus in Canada, with the majority of infected animals in Alberta and Ontario. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said at least 68 poultry farms have been affected by the virus across the country.
Guenter Rieger, who owns and operates Rieger Farms in Armstrong, B.C., said in his 25 years of poultry farming not one of his chickens has come down with the highly infectious virus, thanks to a combination of diligence and common sense.
He’s now donning full PPE around the animals and asking customers who come to pick up eggs to stay in their cars, far from the chicken coops.
Rieger dons full PPE when around his chickens and only allows them outside in netted areas to avoid all contact with wild birds. (Submitted by Guenter Rieger)
“When you go into your barn you use different clothes, use different shoes, you wash your hands, you wear gloves,” he said, adding the key is to keep chickens away from wild birds, like geese and ducks, that spread the virus.
“Keep the feed inside, keep the water inside so you cannot cross-contaminate any disease with your animals.”
People across B.C. have been warned to remove outdoor bird feeders and birdbaths, which can encourage disease transmission by causing birds of different species to come into close contact.
The province is urging poultry farmers to be vigilant and put preventative measures in place by eliminating contact with wild birds, reducing human access to the flock and increasing cleaning and sanitization.
B.C. Agriculture Minister Lana Popham says commercial poultry farmers and anyone with a flock of more than 100 birds is under a provincial order to keep the birds inside. The province has also temporarily banned the co-mingling of birds at events like auctions where they are sold.
Popham said when a bird is infected, the ministry notifies other poultry farmers within 12 kilometres.
There is no current risk to British Columbians buying locally produced eggs and chicken, she added.
She said the infection rate follows the migration of wild birds from the U.S. to B.C. and the threat will start to decrease by the end of May when that migration period ends.
Shayan Sharif, a professor with the University of Guelph and the Ontario Veterinary Clinic, said avian flu is shed from nasal and oral secretions and bird droppings and easily jumps from one bird species to another. He said the current strain — known as H5N1 — is spreading at an alarming rate in the U.S. where 37 million chickens and turkeys have died.
“It’s not necessarily more deadly, but what has happened over the last little while is we’ve noticed it’s been spreading quite rapidly and the extent of its spread is not something we’ve seen before,” said Sharif.
“It is, indeed, quite unprecedented but it doesn’t appear to be more deadly for domestic poultry.”
According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, symptoms include tremors, lack of co-ordination, swelling around the head, neck and eyes, lack of energy, coughing, gasping for air, diarrhea or sudden death.
When avian flu is detected in a flock, the surviving birds are usually destroyed to avoid further spread. In late April, a suspected case of avian flu wiped out 80 per cent of one West Kootenay farmer’s flock before the rest were euthanized.
In B.C., new cases have also been identified in a backyard poultry flock in Kelowna. A bald eagle found in Delta also tested positive for the virus, making it the second bald eagle to test positive, after one in Vancouver in February.
Sharif said while there is always a degree of concern that the virus could jump from animals to humans, the risk remains low and eating properly cooked turkey, chicken, and eggs remains safe.
“This virus has not undergone significant mutations,” he said.
“Based on the level of spread of this virus in B.C. and other provinces, it doesn’t seem to be having a significant amount of impact on the poultry industry in the short term.”
Sick birds should be reported to the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development at 250-751-3234 in B.C., or the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative at 1-800-567-2033.
Backyard enthusiasts need to be aware of the potential bird flu threat to flocks. (Oregon Capital Chronicle/LES ZAITZ)
Oregon and Washington officials on Friday confirmed that both states have had their first cases of a highly pathogenic bird flu and about 150 backyard chickens, turkeys and geese were destroyed this week.
The disease has been present in North America since at least December and has primarily been spread by migrating waterfowl or scavengers like crows, ravens and raptors, said Colin Gillin, Oregon’s state wildlife veterinarian. It can be transmitted through direct contact or water or food contaminated by saliva or feces.
Bird owners should watch for respiratory disease, ruffled feathers or lethargy or instances of birds suddenly dropping dead. In Oregon, people should call the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s sick bird hotline, 800-347-7028, for domestic birds, or the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s hotline, 866-968-2600, for reports of sick or dead wild birds. Messages are checked daily.
Gillin said during an online news conference Friday that this year’s strain has been deadlier for wild birds than a 2014-15 outbreak that resulted in the deaths of more than 50 million domestic birds. So far this year, 37 million domestic birds in the U.S. have died of the disease or been killed preemptively because the disease was detected in their flocks.
“All species of birds should be considered susceptible,” Gillin said. “We know that there’s high transmission rates not only among poultry and domestic birds, but also wild birds.”
The current strain does not appear to pose much risk to people. While it’s been detected among birds in at least 34 states, only a single person who worked directly with birds in Colorado has a diagnosed case of bird flu, said Frank Ameduri, a spokesman with the Washington Department of Health. Public health officials are working with wildlife and agriculture officials to monitor potential human exposures.
“It’s very unlikely that it would spread to humans, but if it does we’ll spot it and certainly let you know,” Ameduri said.
Cases in both northwestern states affected backyard flocks. In Oregon, a Linn County woman called Tuesday to report that she had three geese die over the weekend, and the National Veterinary Services Laboratory confirmed yesterday they had bird flu, said Ryan Scholz, state veterinarian with the Oregon Agriculture Department.
Investigators haven’t determined what caused the infection. About 100 birds in that flock, including adult geese, goslings and two guinea fowl, were euthanized Friday.
Washington’s first detection was in a backyard flock of about 50 chickens and turkeys in Pacific County, said Dana Dobbs, a field veterinarian with the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
“One day a crow flew in with some of his chickens, and the next day, he literally described they were dropping like flies,” she said.
The remaining birds were killed Friday after testing by Washington State University and the National Veterinary Services Laboratory confirmed the presence of bird flu. Neither the Washington or Oregon backyard flocks were near commercial chicken farms, and officials don’t yet know how many other animals are at risk.
Oregon farms had about 2.75 million chickens in 2021, according to the Agriculture Department. Poultry is a $15.8 million industry.
People with backyard flocks should keep their animal habitats clean and covered if possible and follow biosecurity guidelines from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Dobbs said. That includes regularly washing hands, wearing protective boot covers and limiting how many people come in contact with birds.
“The biggest thing is biosecurity,” she said. “This can be birds literally flying overhead or landing amongst the flocks. It’s good if you can bring them under cover if you can, or cover their coops if you can. Clean up any food spills. Limit visitors to the farm, especially if there are other poultry owners.”
So far, the two biggest risk factors in backyard flocks are mixed species and access to ponds or other water sources, even if it’s just a temporary water source like a puddle that birds gather around, said Washington State Veterinarian Amber Itle. Owners should separate their birds by species and limit access to water, she said.
The current strain doesn’t appear to be affecting many songbirds. People with bird feeders or fountains should keep them clean, but don’t need to stop providing bird seed unless they’re attracting waterfowl, said Bryan Richards, emerging disease coordinator at the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center.
The 2014-15 strain essentially burned out once migrating birds reached their northern nesting grounds, Richards said. Scientists hope that will happen this year, but they fear it may return as birds migrate south in the fall based on experiences in Europe, which had a similar bird flu in 2021.
Itle agreed that farmers should stay alert this fall, when migrating birds head south. Migrating birds generally pass through Oregon on their way north in April and May and on their way south beginning in September.
“When birds get together, they’re up in Alaska, and they all hang out. they go on dates and those viruses reassort, we never really know what we’re going to get,” she said.
A dry section of the US’ biggest manmade reservoir, Lake Mead, where water levels are rapidly plummeting amid a megadrought.Mario Tama/Getty ImagesCNN—
There’s now a 50:50 chance that the world will surpass a critical threshold of1.5 degrees Celsius of global warmingin the next five years, a new World Meteorological Organization report shows, warning of heating that could have devastating impacts on systems like coral reefs as well as Arctic ice.
The report says that surpassing the limit is likely to be temporary – temperatures could come back down again – but science shows that even a temporary overshoot could bringirreversible changesto the planet.
The report warns that at least one year between 2022 and 2026 will surpass the 1.5C mark and that there is a 93% chance that the period will see the warmest…
Conglomerates have bought out several smaller companies as the meat substitute market is predicted to grow rapidly
Meat alternatives at a supermarket in London. Big meat companies have been investing heavily in the alternative protein market.Photograph: Nathaniel Noir/Alamy
Big meat and food conglomerates threaten to push out smaller producers of meat alternatives in the same way they have affected other food industries, according to two recent reports.
Meat companies such as JBS and Cargill have invested heavily in plant-based proteins and laboratory-grown meats in recent years and bought out several smaller companies, according to areportpublished Tuesday by the non-profit Food & Water Watch and a Marchreportfrom IPES-Food, a coalition of food systems experts.
The animal meat conglomerates are joining other food giants that already control about 80% of the meat alternative market, including Kellogg’s, which…
Conglomerates have bought out several smaller companies as the meat substitute market is predicted to grow rapidly
Meat alternatives at a supermarket in London. Big meat companies have been investing heavily in the alternative protein market. Photograph: Nathaniel Noir/Alamy
Big meat and food conglomerates threaten to push out smaller producers of meat alternatives in the same way they have affected other food industries, according to two recent reports.
Meat companies such as JBS and Cargill have invested heavily in plant-based proteins and laboratory-grown meats in recent years and bought out several smaller companies, according to a report published Tuesday by the non-profit Food & Water Watch and a March report from IPES-Food, a coalition of food systems experts.
“With most of these products you won’t see the parent company’s name on the label,” said Philip Howard, an associate professor at Michigan State University and lead author of the IPES-Food report. People buying meat alternative products “may not realize they’re supporting those big companies”, he added.
The meat substitute market is predicted to grow rapidly, from $4.2bn in sales in 2020 to $28bn in 2025, according to IPES-Food. Much of that growth will come from the already robust plant-based meat industry, the report said, but several conglomerates have also invested hundreds of millions to develop lab-grown meat – meat produced in bioreactors without the need to slaughter animals.
Both plant-based and lab-grown meat producers say their products are better for the environment than meat. Plant-based alternatives have a median carbon footprint 93% smaller than beef, according to a report from Johns Hopkins University. And German scientists have said replacing even 20% of the world’s beef consumption with microbial proteins such as Quorn could cut deforestation in half.
Even as the meat industry downplays the value of fake meat, as pressure grows from climate scientists and other experts to dramatically reduce meat consumption, some big meat companies may be looking for other revenue streams.
Cargill has been active in the sector, investing in lab-grown meat company Aleph Farms and creating its own plant proteins. Tyson Foods is selling plant-based meats under its Raised & Rooted brand and has invested in several plant-based and lab-grown meat companies.
JBS, the world’s biggest meat company, last year bought lab-grown meat firm BioTech Foods and also Dutch plant-based meat company Vivera, which has the corporate tagline: “Life is better when you eat less meat.”
“They’re covering their bases because this is an area that’s growing very quickly,” Howard said. “These companies have gotten big and powerful by using every strategy they can.”https://interactive.guim.co.uk/uploader/embed/2022/05/meat-giants/giv-6562wMEUDDPklM1t/
US federal regulators are doing little to stop consolidation in the alternative meat sector, said Amanda Starbuck, research director for Food & Water Watch, who added that it could end up looking similar to the beef industry, where four companies – JBS, Cargill, Tyson Foods and National Beef Packing – control 85% of the industry.
“Plant-based meat brands are hardly an alternative to the current system if they continue to entrench corporate power,” concludes the Food & Water Watch report. “It shows the futility of voting with your dollar,” Starbuck said.
It’s a concern echoed in the IPES-Food report, which says corporate control threatens to undermine gains from reducing reliance on animals by replicating some of the problems of the traditional meat industry, including mass-produced, monocultured ingredients and energy-consuming methods. Increases in meat alternatives could “reinforce the power relations that keep current systems in place, and fail to address the question of how systemic changes will be achieved,” notes the report.
With big companies likely to consolidate control of the meat alternative industry, Howard worries the landscape will resemble the US craft beer industry. While the US has nearly 9,000 breweries, the vast majority are tiny and can’t distribute beer beyond their neighborhood bars, and alcohol conglomerates have snapped up most of the larger craft brewers.
Smaller producers could find it difficult to get the grains and other plants needed for meat alternatives, said Celia Homyak, co-director of UC Berkeley’s Alternative Meats Lab. Big companies “are going to capture all of these ingredients and take them away from these smaller companies that are doing the innovation,” Homyak said. “They have the power of money and size.”
But she also sees benefits in increased interest from big meat companies. Corporate investment and a smaller industry aren’t necessarily bad, Homyak said. “We need more people to be entering this space, and obviously it will shrink down because you can’t have a million players,” she said. “I’m not actually that worried about the big conglomerates coming in because it shows these larger corporations think this industry is valid.”
‘Beyond Burger’ patties made from plant-based substitutes for meat products sit alongside packages of ground beef in New York City. Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images
At least 1,300 startups were producing meat alternatives as of six months ago, said Zak Weston, a senior supply chain manager with the Good Food Institute, a non-profit that advocates for fewer animal-based proteins. “There is a lot happening right now in the ecosystem, and large companies are playing a role. And we think that’s a positive,” Weston said.
AdvertisementContinue watchingJudge strikes down Florida governor’s ‘unconstitutional’ election mapafter the ad
javascript:false
But some worry investment from big meat companies will stifle innovation in an industry that depends on it.
The industry is better off with smaller companies without corporate ties, said Dan Staackmann, who founded Upton’s Naturals 16 years ago. The Chicago-based company, which Staackmann says has never taken outside money, sells vegan proteins in stores and restaurants around the country.
“You take that money and suddenly someone’s looking over your shoulder,” he said. “I can do more with $100,000 than some of these companies can do with $100m, and I think that’s the same with a lot of entrepreneurs. You just can’t steer a large ship quickly enough in a changing market like this one.”
But independence may be fleeting for many producers, said Howard, the Michigan State professor. Conglomerates have partnerships with major grocery chains and distributors, he said, so anyone looking to expand their meat alternatives beyond their neighborhood will feel pressure to sell.
“It’s going to be very difficult for those small and medium-sized firms to stay in business,” Howard said. “We have economic systems that reinforce the position of the rich and powerful. Just breaking into supermarket shelves is very difficult for smaller producers.”
Reflecting on the Cuban missile crisis, President John Kennedy once warned that nuclear powers “must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war.”
The showdown with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine does not yet mirror the one-minute-to-midnight brinkmanship that brought the Soviet Union and the West to the cusp of Armageddon in October 1962.
But Kennedy’s superpower logic is resounding poignantly as Putin gets backed into a corner by the strategic disaster of his war, Ukraine’s heroic resistance and an extraordinary multibillion-dollar allied conveyor of arms and ammunition.
President Joe Biden, who has always stated his twin aims are to help Ukraine defend itself and to avoid a direct escalation with Putin that could risk nuclear war, seems to have been mulling JFK’s warning.
At a fundraiser in Potomac, Maryland, on Monday night, Biden confided that he was concerned Putin had yet to devise an exit from the war, despite the former KGB officer’s “calculating” nature.
Senior national security officials, meanwhile, admit they do not yet know what kind of incremental Russian success in eastern and southern Ukraine would allow Putin to declare a victory of sorts and de-escalate the war, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported.
This is all a worry. But it’s one that seems somewhat discordant with US policy. After all, Washington’s explicitly stated aim in supporting Ukraine is that Putin loses the war. Biden has asked Congress for $33 billion to send military and other aid to Ukraine, and the House on Tuesday voted to pass a roughly $40 billion bill. Washington is flooding the battlefield with anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, radars, drones, artillery rounds and howitzers.
This aggressive Western approach, the slow progress of Putin’s war of attrition and the lack of any diplomatic effort to end the war mean that it is almost certain the Russian leader will get further backed into a dangerous corner.
Putin’s only exit option right now appears to be a capitulation, and a tacit admission that the Western effort, combined with fierce Ukrainian courage, got the better of him – a position that would be politically impossible to adopt.
How far would Putin go?
There is no real consensus on what Putin might do if he’s desperate. While he doesn’t share Washington’s logical and accurate view that he’s losing the war, there’s no indication he’s suicidal and would risk a full-scale nuclear confrontation by testing Western resolve.
Several senior US officials have publicly voiced the fear that Putin might reach for tactical, lower-yield battlefield nuclear arms as an alternative to a humiliating defeat in Ukraine. There was some relief on that score on Tuesday, when Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a congressional committee that the US view is there is not “an imminent potential for Putin to use nuclear weapons.” And the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, said that assessment also encompasses tactical or battlefield devices.
But it’s hardly alarmist to consider the possibility. Putin has proved himself a ruthless leader with little compunction about causing mass casualties. He razed cities in Chechnya and unleashed his forces on civilians in Syria. His war in Ukraine has featured merciless shelling and bombing of residential areas, schools, stations and shelters, and apparent war crimes by his troops. Thousands of his soldiers have died. And Putin has already used weapons of mass destruction – for instance, targeting Russian defectors on British soil with radioactive elements and nerve agents – with zero regard for civilians, according to the UK government.
Why this Russian plane could signify a ‘warning to the West’
Russia’s willingness to threaten the use of nuclear weapons – in a way that the Soviet Union rarely did during the Cold War – to terrorize Western publics is, meanwhile, underscoring the kind of advantage the world’s most fearsome arsenal can bring to rogue states that want to forestall the possibility of Western intervention.
Putin shows no sign of eyeing the exits
While the US can be criticized for failing to give Putin the kind of way out that Biden was speculating about, such an initiative would be hard – and might not work anyway.
To begin with, Putin is not eyeing the exits. While the war is an economic, military and strategic disaster for Russia, the Kremlin leader dances to his own logic. If he can’t control all of Ukraine or topple its government, creating vast human and material destruction that prevents Ukraine from functioning as a normal economy and punishes its aspirations to join the West may be enough – and could act as a deterrent to other ex-Soviet orbit states.
That’s perhaps one reason why Haines suggested on Tuesday that the Russian leader was “preparing for a prolonged conflict in Ukraine, during which he still intends to achieve goals beyond the Donbas.” But she warned the mismatch between Putin’s military capabilities and his ambitions meant that he could be forced back into that dangerous corner – and lash out.
“The current trend increases the likelihood that President Putin will turn to more drastic means, including imposing martial law, reorienting industrial production or potentially escalatory military actions to free up the resources needed to achieve his objectives as the conflict drags on, or if he perceives Russia is losing in Ukraine,” Haines said.
The idea that Putin could be coaxed out of the strategic cul-de-sac in which he finds himself also falls down for two other reasons. First, the Russian leader refused all diplomatic off-ramps, entreaties and warnings to de-escalate the conflict before the invasion. Now the stakes for his personal prestige, political position and Russia’s reputation – as well as history’s judgment – are more acute. In fact, there were signs of a possible fresh escalation Tuesday as Belarus moved special forces to the borders of Ukraine, citing what it claimed was Western aggression.
The second reason why this may not be the time for diplomacy lies in the belief in hawkish Western capitals, like London and Washington, that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces, flush with Western arms, have earned the right to win the war – and might end up doing so. Ukraine is, after all, the wronged party, which has suffered an unprovoked invasion.
Putin makes claims about NATO in Victory Day speech
And so far, Putin hasn’t targeted arms convoys headed to Ukraine on NATO soil or staged major cyberattacks against Western targets – at least any that are publicly known. Both omissions suggest the power of deterrence.
But as the war drags on, with the constant danger of an escalation or a miscalculation that would precipitate a wider clash, cracks may be opening in the fortress of Western unity.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who tried unsuccessfully to convince Putin not to invade Ukraine, condemned the Russian leader’s bellicose Victory Day rhetoric. But he also said that eventually Ukraine and Russia would have to sit down and talk peace – a cause that would not be served by Moscow’s “humiliation.” Macron then spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping, a Putin ally, on Tuesday, after which the Élysée Palace said they had agreed “on the urgency of a ceasefire.”
And there was a striking moment in the Oval Office on Tuesday, when Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, after lauding Western unity on Ukraine and condemning the Russian invasion, had this to say to Biden before the cameras:
“I have to tell you that in Italy and in Europe now, people want to put an end to … these massacres, to this violence, this butchery that’s happening. And people think about what can we do to bring peace.
“At least they want to think about the possibility of bringing a ceasefire and starting again some credible negotiations. That’s the situation right now. I think that we have to think deeply on how to address this.”
His comments reflected a growing nervousness that without some kind of outside intervention, Putin could well get pushed into the kind of corner that Kennedy was talking about in a speech at American University in June 1963.
Months earlier, as the world had held its breath in fear of nuclear war, Kennedy had engineered a way for Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to stand down without losing face in their standoff over Cuba.
Six decades later, some kind of similar accommodation, however painful that may be, could be required for Putin.
James Cromwell, one of the stars in “Succession,” superglued himself to a counter of a Starbucks in New York protesting the chain’s surcharge on vegan milks.
The incident, which happened Tuesday, was a protest coordinated with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Cromwell is a longtime supporter of the group and serves as an “Honorary Director.” He’s seen on video posted by the organization asking Starbucks to “stop charging more” for vegan milk.
Starbucks charges roughly 70 cents extra for a dairy alternative, which includes soy, coconut, almond and oat milks, depending on the US city. The chain recently dropped the surcharge at its United Kingdom stores.
“My friends at PETA and I are calling on Starbucks to stop punishing kind and environmentally conscious customers for choosing plant milks,” Cromwell said in a press release from PETA. “We all have a stake in the life-and-death matter of the climate catastrophe, and Starbucks should do its part by ending its vegan upcharge.”
The incident appeared to last about a half hour before police arrived to clear the midtown Manhattan cafe. Cromwell appeared to scrape the glue off his hand with a knife.
“We respect our customers’ rights to respectfully voice their opinions so long as it does not disrupt our store operations,” a Starbucks (SBUX) spokesperson said in a statement.
PETA has long been vocal about this issue. They recently had Sir Paul McCartney write an open letter to the company to former CEO Kevin Johnson asking that its US locations to eliminate the extra fee as they’ve done in the UK.
Cromwell was also nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the farmer in the 1995 film “Babe.” He currently plays Ewan Roy in “Succession,” which airs on HBO. Like CNN, HBO is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.
TUESDAY, May 10, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Today’s H1N1 flu — commonly known as the swine flu — appears to be a direct descendent of the influenza virus that caused the catastrophic 1918 pandemic, a new analysis shows.
Case of Bird Flu in a Human Is Confirmed in Colorado
178Play Video
Case of Bird Flu in a Human Is Confirmed in Colorado
NOW PLAYING
This Flu Season Has Been Especially Bad
Gun Violence Spike Adds to Hospital Pandemic Strain
Fauci Says the US Is Out of the ‘Pandemic Phase’ of COVID-19
6 Retailers That Will Reward You for Getting a Flu Shot
Genetic data drawn from 1918 flu samples recently discovered in Germany suggests that all genomic segments of the seasonal H1N1 flu could be directly descended from that terrible initial strain, the researchers said.
“The subsequent seasonal flu virus that went on circulating after the pandemic might well have directly evolved from the pandemic virus entirely,” said senior researcher Sebastien Calvignac-Spencer, an evolutionary biologist with the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin.
If correct, this new theory contradicts other hypotheses that have held that today’s seasonal flu emerged through different viruses sharing their genetic code, the study authors noted.
This study began when Calvignac-Spencer and his colleagues uncovered a rare set of lung tissue specimens dated between 1900 and 1931, all preserved within the Berlin Museum of Medical History and the Natural History Museum in Vienna, Austria.
From those lung specimens, the investigators were able to develop a complete flu genome from a sample collected in Munich in 1918, as well as two partial flu genomes collected in Berlin that same year.
“These data are important,” Calvignac-Spencer said. “The 1918 pandemic affected more than half of mankind and killed 50 to 100 million people, but at the time we started this work there were only 18 specimens from which sequences were available and only two complete genomes, and most from the U.S.,” he explained.
Applying a “molecular clock” model, the researchers compared the 1918 flu genetics to those of today’s seasonal flu.
The team found that seasonal H1N1 and the 1918 viruses “cluster together,” indicating that the initial strain of influenza continued to evolve on its own in humans, birds and mammals rather than combine with other viruses, eventually becoming one of today’s major flu strains.
For example, the 1918 influenza was known to have entered the pig population during that pandemic, and was maintained as a flu strain that only affected swine, said co-researcher Thorsten Wolff, head of influenza and respiratory virus research at the Robert Koch Institute.
Then in 2009, that strain jumped back into humans, creating that year’s swine flu outbreak, Wolff said.
The team’s findings were published online May 10 in the journalNature Communications.
The work of these “viral archeologists” helps explain why the 2009 swine flu varied in how it affected younger people worse than older folks, said Dr. William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
“That was a virus that hit more children and middle-aged and young adults,” Schaffner said. “In contrast to what flu usually does, which has its greatest impact on older people, older people were spared, relatively speaking,” he noted.
“There were data generated at that time suggesting that was because they had had experience, some of them, with either this early H1N1 virus that goes back to 1918 or its successors,” Schaffner continued. “And so these data fit very nicely into those epidemiologic investigations.”
It also helps explain why the worst flu seasons tend to come when the H3N2 “Hong Kong” influenza strain is dominant, since it’s a newer strain against which people have less natural and vaccine-developed immunity, Schaffner added.
“The current influenza vaccines that we’re using work better against the H1N1 strains than the H3N2,” Schaffner said. “Obviously this virus has mutated and picked up genetic elements from swine and from birds so it’s not the identical virus, but it’s clearly a progeny, one of the grandchildren or the great-grandchildren.”
There is evidence that the 1918 flu evolved during successive waves of that pandemic, much as the COVID-19 coronavirus has done during the modern pandemic, Calvignac-Spencer said.
Calvignac-Spencer and Schaffner both cautioned that influenza and coronavirus come from two entirely different and unrelated families of virus, so it’s hard to draw direct lessons from what happened in 1918 versus today.
However, Schaffner noted that more recent COVID strains like Omicron tend to be more infectious but produce somewhat less severe disease in people who’ve been vaccinated or previously infected.
“So there may be something roughly analogous going on with COVID,” Schaffner said. “There’s a general truth — the more we learn about viruses and how they function, we’ll be able to make even better vaccines going into the future.”
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about the 1918 flu pandemic.
SOURCES: Sebastien Calvignac-Spencer, evolutionary biologist, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany; Thorsten Wolff, head, influenza and respiratory virus research, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany; William Schaffner, MD, medical director, National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, Md.; Nature Communications, May 10, 2022, online
Ukrainian forces conduct a training exercise on May 09 near Kryvyi Rih. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images
The U.S. intelligence community assesses Russia is preparing for a “prolonged conflict” in Ukraine that is likely to become “more unpredictable and escalatory” due to a “mismatch” between Vladimir Putin’s ambitions and military capabilities, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testified Tuesday.
Why it matters:Both Russia and Ukraine believe they can continue to make progress militarily, turning the conflict into a “war of attrition” with no “viable” prospects for peace negotiations in the near term, Haines told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The big picture:While Russian forces have refocused on the eastern Donbas region after failing to capture Kyiv in the first few weeks of the war, the U.S. views this as “only a temporary shift.”
