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A Japanese team has examined whether pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus is more virulent than a widely circulating seasonal H1N1 human flu virus. The studies were conducted in two animal models (mice and ferrets) that traditionally have been good predictors of human infection with flu viruses; the viruses also were tested in nonhuman primates.
To assess virus transmissibility, the investigators placed caged ferrets at different distances from one another: The pandemic H1N1 virus was transmitted as readily as the seasonal flu virus. In mice, ferrets, and primates, the pandemic H1N1 virus produced greater expression of viral antigen in the peribronchial glands (indicating that the virus replicated more exuberantly) and caused more-severe bronch…