THE humble budgie has become an unexpected menace in the latest H7N9 bird flu outbreak.
H7N9 emerged in south-east China last March, infecting 136 people. It returned in October, infecting 116 more. Nearly a third of those infected have died.
The virus cannot spread readily between people, and most cases are linked to live poultry markets. But now Jeremy Jones at St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee and colleagues in China report that budgies, finches and sparrows can contract H7N9. They can shed enough virus from their beaks into drinking water to infect other birds (Emerging Infectious Diseases, doi.org/q8d).
These species are popular pets in China, especially for older men, who have disproportionately contracted H7N9. They also figure in Buddhist ceremonies in which birds are kissed then released.
Meanwhile, another virus has emerged from the Chinese poultry industry. H10N8 killed an elderly woman last year, and now a younger woman is critically ill.
This article appeared in print under the headline "Beware the budgie"
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