Peking duck, salted duck eggs and duck soup is a favorite menu in China. However, last spring, farmers in China have found that pet birds that produce eggs in much lower quantities than normal. In some farms, egg production dropped by 90 percent. How to run and coordinate their bodies into strange appetite also decreased. A number of ducks and then die within days.
Shortly thereafter, it was reported, about 4.4 million ducks in the province of Fujian, Shandong, and Zhejiang, the area that became the center of the duck farm in China is experiencing a mysterious disease. The disease then struck at least six other provinces and remote areas around Beijing.
Widespread outbreak of a mysterious illness that triggers George Gao and his colleagues, microbiology researcher from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing to act. They analyzed the animals affected by the disease.
Finally, the researchers managed to isolate flavavirus aggressive new variant. The virus was similar to that cause yellow fever and dengue. However, this is the first time the virus was found in ducks. The findings of a virus that is named BYD viruses are instantly raised concerns.
The reason, other than potentially destroying the duck farm in China, where economies are very dependent on him, Flavivirus is also dangerous to humans.
"Most of the Flavivirus is a zoonotic. That is, they can be transmitted between animals and humans, "Gao said, as quoted from Sciencemag, April 1, 2011. "Thus, human infection can occur," he said.
BYD virus, according to Gao, very closely with Tembusu virus, Flavivirus variant found in Southeast Asia. Just like virus, the researchers estimated, the spread of BYD can be done by mosquitoes.
However, the approximate spread of the virus through mosquito is not necessarily agreed upon by other researchers. "Transmission by mosquitoes should not be used as a conclusion," said Ernest Gould, virologist from the Universite de la Mediterranee in Marseille, France.
Gould said the change in temperature during the period of the spread of the virus was not consistent with other flavavirus that is spread by mosquitoes.
For information, BYD virus that infected ducks in China occurred in early spring, when the air is still cold. At that time, the mosquito population generally remains low and continues its peak during the spring.
"It remains to be done for more detailed epidemiological studies to conclude that," said Gould. "However, this finding is an important warning, including for residents of other areas outside of China. Flavivirus spread of new China could become a global problem, "he said.
Spread of duck farms in China also makes Gao and his colleagues confirmed that this disease should be monitored closely. Moreover, the virus can spread to humans. "The next step is to develop a vaccine to overcome this BYD virus," said Gao.
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