Dog Germs Diversify, May Threaten Humans with Flu Pandemics

If you lie with dogs, you might get fleas—or worse, an influenza virus that is completely unfamiliar to your immune defenses. The risk appears to be rising, says an international team of scientists that has been studying how influenza viruses jump from species to species. In a new study, these scientists present evidence that influenza virus can jump from pigs into canines, and that influenza is becoming increasingly diverse in canines. The scientists, who are affiliated with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the National Institutes of Health, and Guangxi University, warn that mammals remain under-recognized sources of influenza virus diversity, including pigs that were the source of the 2009 pandemic and bats and bovines that harbor highly divergent viral lineages. Dogs, too, may serve as influenza reservoirs, as the scientists discovered after sequencing the complete genomes of 16 influenza A viruses (IAVs) obtained from canines in southern China.