H1N1 Flu - Evolved in eggs grown for vaccines?

[luminesce]

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/272561

Bloomberg reports that Adrian Gibbs, an Australian who has studied germ evolution for four decades and worked on research that led to the development of Roche's well-known anti-flu drug Tamiflu, said he intends to publish a report today that suggests the swine flu could have evolved in the eggs scientists use to grow viruses and drug makers use to make vaccines.

Other experts have reviewed the report and not all of them are impressed. Nancy Cox, the director of the influenza division of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta says that there is no evidence to support Gibb's conclusion.

ETA, A bit more interesting blurb:
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/sciencei...apid-rise.html

[Sk8ermaiden]

I admit to knowing NOTHING about this, but it just sounds funny. If this virus evolved in high-tech labs, why did the epidemic start in super-rural Mexico?

[angie7]

Hmmmm..I would love to know the details of the study.

[Full Heart]

Originally Posted by Sk8ermaiden

I admit to knowing NOTHING about this, but it just sounds funny. If this virus evolved in high-tech labs, why did the epidemic start in super-rural Mexico?

Well they aren't sure where it started and the WHO is wondering if it was intentionally or accidentally released. Which how does something become accidentally released? I saw the story at foxnews.com Of course I had speculated anyway, they suspect the flu of 1918 was the same thing, man made.

[luminesce]

Originally Posted by Sk8ermaiden

I admit to knowing NOTHING about this, but it just sounds funny. If this virus evolved in high-tech labs, why did the epidemic start in super-rural Mexico?

I haven't read all the details but I'm thinking the supposition was that it might have "escaped" via vaccine. And pigs in Mexico are vaccinated. In fact, the suspected pig factory declared "It can't have started here; we vaccinate all our swine!"

This bit was in the second link:

"The vaccine was supposed to contain killed versions of the virus, but what if there had been a lab accident and some had survived? Specifically, both human and pig vaccine manufacturers use eggs to grow the viruses, and Gibbs notes that studies have shown that this odd avian environment can accelerate their evolution. If these viruses were not properly killed, they could have reassorted in a pig and created the new H1N1 strain."

ETA: Does anyone know if they give pigs live, attenuated vaccines? That would be rather scary and make this theory all the more plausible.

[MissRubyandKen]

You might find these interesting-

1 Effect of Vaccine Use in the Evolution of Mexican Lineage H5N2 Avian Influenza Virus

2 Vaccination of Pigs against Swine Influenza Viruses by Using an NS1-Truncated Modified Live-Virus Vaccine

3 Avian influenza: genetic evolution under vaccination pressure

4 Researcher Develops Avian Flu Vaccine For Poultry

5 Live H5N1 Avian Flu Virus Vaccines Show Protection In Animal Studies

6 Influenza Vaccine Pipeline

[Romana]

WHO updated on this today and says they have examined the evidence and believe H1N1 is a wild, not man/lab-created virus.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/702862