Origins of the 1918 Pandemic: Revisiting the Swine "Mixing Vessel" Hypothesis.

ABSTRACT: How influenza A viruses host-jump from animal reservoir species to humans, which can initiate global pandemics, is a central question in pathogen evolution. The zoonotic and spatial origins of the influenza virus associated with the "Spanish flu" pandemic of 1918 have been debated for decades. Outbreaks of respiratory disease in US swine occurred concurrently with disease in humans, raising the possibility that the 1918 virus originated in pigs. Swine also were proposed as "mixing vessel" intermediary hosts between birds and humans during the 1957 Asian and 1968 Hong Kong pandemics. Swine have presented an attractive explanation for how avian viruses overcome the substantial evolutionary barriers presented by different cellular environments in humans and birds. However, key assumptions und

SUBMITTER: Nelson MI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6269246 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature