PET birds may be harbouring avian flu viruses closely related to the strain
that killed six people in Hong Kong in 1997 and raised the spectre of a
worldwide pandemic.
Masaji Mase at the National Institute of Animal Health in Tsukuba, Japan, and
his colleagues found influenza A viruses in Indian ring-necked parakeets that
died after being imported to Japan from Pakistan. The researchers found the
viruses could also infect chickens and mice, but didn’t make them sick. It’s the
first time such viruses have been found in pet birds, Mase says.
The viruses were of the H9N2 variety, a…
