Flu Immune 500

It’s the season of the flu and medical professionals push flu shots and wait for suffering patients. But they’re not alone veterinarians brace themselves for waves of sick animals.

The influenza virus spreads by entering the body usually through the mouth or nose. The sole purpose of this one cell animal is to reproduce. It accomplishes this by attaching itself to a cell’s receptors and invading its nucleus. Once inside it reproduces its own material ranter than the body’s natural DNA. Once complete the cell’s membrane ruptures and the newly formed viruses spread out into the body to repeat the sequence. Since it can reproduce 10,000 times faster than the body’s own cell it can race through the individual until the immune system kicks in and launches defenses.

But for human or animal to become sick with the virus it as to be able to attach itself to the body’s cells. In most cases, given how many different viruses are out there, the attempt fails. But when successful the virus can spread rapidly from victim to victim usually through infected saliva droplets carried in the air. They can either land on the victim or contaminate surfaces with which other individuals come in contact.

Infection can happen before any symptoms are displayed. So its easy to see why a flock of domestic chickens or other birds can be stricken by the avian flu so quickly. Their death sentence has been given before the farmer knows there’s a problem. The bird flu has gotten the most attention because it is capable of making the species to species jump and is over 50% fatal in humans. This is probably due to a mutation which happens during the reproduction process. The chemicals of the virus changed in such a way that they were able to attach itself to a human cell. Thankfully the scare of a major human outbreak hasn’t been realized as of this writing.

Besides birds other animals that become sick with influenza are ferrets, pigs, marine animals and recently dogs. Every horse owner knows the devastating effect the virus can have on their equine friend. Some strains of equine virus can be deadly and for the first time the Hendra virus has infected humans. It has also been spread to canines.

The point is that viruses mutate and while one strand may be harmless to human or another species its mutated form could have deadly properties. An animal that doesn’t have a record of getting influenza at present may not be so lucky a year from now.

It’s a scary prospect but medical advances keep coming and even without them humans, animals and viruses have existed on planet Earth for long time and while we do battle now and them all three of us are still here.