How can the bird flu, which infects only birds, transform into a flu that can in

Question

How can the bird flu, which infects only birds, transform into a flu that can infect humans? a. Bird and human flu viruses can mix and match RNA strands in infected pig cells. b. The reverse transcriptase in influenza viruses can be activated, which changes bird flu viruses into human flu viruses. c. Bird flu viruses can steal glycoproteins from pigs, allowing them access to human cells. d. Bird flu viruses only needs to mutate a little bit and they become human infective. e. While bird flu doesn't infect healthy humans, it very easily can infect those who are already ill from another disease. How can the bird flu, which infects only birds, transform into a flu that can infect humans? a. Bird and human flu viruses can mix and match RNA strands in infected pig cells. b. The reverse transcriptase in influenza viruses can be activated, which changes bird flu viruses into human flu viruses. c. Bird flu viruses can steal glycoproteins from pigs, allowing them access to human cells. d. Bird flu viruses only needs to mutate a little bit and they become human infective. e. While bird flu doesn't infect healthy humans, it very easily can infect those who are already ill from another disease.

Explanation / Answer

Answer :- (A)

A pig were infected with Human influenza A virus and an avian influenza A virus at the same time, the new replicating viruses could mix existing genetic information and produce a new influeza A virus that had most of gene from the human virus, but a hemagglutinin gene and neuraminidase gene and other gene from the avian virus. The resulting new virus might then be able to infect human and spread easily from person to person.

This type of major change in the influenza A viruses is known as " antigenic shift".

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