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Influenza A(H9N2) virus circulates in domestic poultry, and outbreaks have been recorded since the early 1990s in China (1). In Pakistan, H9N2 virus was first detected in a poultry outbreak [...]

Background: Jeilongvirus was proposed as a new genus within the Paramyxoviridae in 2018. The advancement in metagenomic approaches has encouraged multiple reports of Jeilongvirus detection following the initial species discovery, enriching species diversity and host range within the genus. However, Jeilongvirus remains understudied in Singapore, where interfaces between humans and small mammals are plentiful. Methods: Here, we utilized metagenomic sequencing for the exploration of viral diversity in small mammal tissues. Upon discovery of Jeilongvirus, molecular screening and full genome sequencing was conducted, with the data used to conduct statistical modelling and phylogenetic analysis. Results: We report the presence of Jeilongvirus in four species of Singapore wild small mammals, detected in their spleen and kidney. We show that full genomes of three Singapore Jeilongvirus encode for eight ORFs including the small hydrophobic and transmembrane proteins. All generated genomes cluster phylogenetically within the small mammal subclade, but share low genetic similarity with representative Jeilongvirus species. Statistical modelling showed no spatial or temporal patterns and differences among species, life history traits and habitat types. Conclusions: This study serves as a basis for understanding dynamics between Jeilongvirus and small mammal hosts in Singapore by displaying the virus generalist nature. In addition, the initial detection can help to invoke improved routine surveillance and detection of circulating pathogens in synanthropic hosts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology-driven workplace tracking is becoming increasingly widespread and normalized. However, experiences of the tracking practices and their impact on individual employees and employers are not fully understood. Eleven qualitative interviews investigated employees' and employers' subjective and affective perceptions and experiences of workplace tracking, finding that employees were ambivalent about being tracked, their divergent feelings affecting their actions and experiences, while employers emphasized the benefits, concerns and rationales of the practice. This research highlights the affective side of the tracking practice by revealing how employee and employer experiences and perceptions of workplace tracking are embodied in divergent ways, with meanings ascribed to technologies culturally situated, mediated by context, positionality and use. Recommendations are proposed for further research as well as a collective policy framework governing workplace tracking to address current tensions within a fairer organizational culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genus Ebolavirns comprises 5 virus species: Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV), Sudan ebolavirus (SUDV), Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BDBV), Tai' Forest ebolavirus (TAFV), and Reston ebolavirus (RESTV). The genus Marburgvirus comprises 1 species, [...]

Initially infecting poultry, avian influenza A(H9N2) viruses have been sporadically identified in pigs and humans, which suggests that some of these viruses have adapted to bind mammalian host receptors or [...]

Swine influenza A viruses (SwIV) cause significant economic losses in animal husbandry as well as instances of human disease1 and occasionally give rise to human pandemics (2), including that caused by the H1N1/2009 virus (3,4). The lack of systematic and longitudinal influenza surveillance in pigs has hampered attempts to reconstruct the origins of this pandemic (4). Most existing swine data were derived from opportunistic samples collected from diseased pigs in disparate geographical regions, not from prospective studies in defined locations, hence the evolutionary and transmission dynamics of SwIV are poorly understood. Here we quantify the epidemiological, genetic and antigenic dynamics of SwIV in Hong Kong using a data set of more than 650 SwIV isolates and more than 800 swine sera from 12 years of systematic surveillance in this region, supplemented with data stretching back 34 years. Intercontinental virus movement has led to reassortment and lineage replacement, creating an antigenically and genetically diverse virus population whose dynamics are quantitatively different from those previously observed for human influenza viruses. Our findings indicate that increased antigenic drift is associated with reassortment events and offer insights into the emergence of influenza viruses with epidemic potential in swine and humans., All major SwIV lineages of North American or European origin--classical swine (CS), European or Eurasian avian-like swine (EA) and triple-reassortant swine (TRIG) (see Supplementary Information for an overview)--co-circulate in southern [...]

Pandemic influenza viruses cause significant mortality in humans. In the 20th century, 3 influenza viruses caused major pandemics: the 1918 H1N1 virus, the 1957 H2N2 virus, and the 1968 H3N2 virus. These pandemics were initiated by the introduction and successful adaptation of a novel hemagglutinin subtype to humans from an animal source, resulting in antigenic shift, Despite global concern regarding a new pandemic influenza, the emergence pathway of pandemic strains remains unknown. Here we estimated the evolutionary history and inferred date of introduction to humans of each of the genes for all 20th century pandemic influenza strains. Our results indicate that genetic components of the 1918 H1N1 pandemic virus circulated in mammalian hosts, i.e., swine and humans, as early as 1911 and was not likely to be a recently introduced avian virus. Phylogenetic relationships suggest that the A/Brevig Mission/I/1918 virus (BM/1918) was generated by reassortment between mammalian viruses and a previously circulating human strain, either in swine or, possibly, in humans. Furthermore, seasonal and classic swine H1N1 viruses were not derived directly from BM/1918, but their precursors co-circulated during the pandemic. Mean estimates of the time of most recent common ancestor also suggest that the H2N2 and H3N2 pandemic strains may have been generated through reassortment events in unknown mammalian hosts and involved multiple avian viruses preceding pandemic recognition. The possible generation of pandemic strains through a series of reassortment events in mammals over a period of years before pandemic recognition suggests that appropriate surveillance strategies for detection of precursor viruses may abort future pandemics. H1N1 | influenza A | swine | virus evolution | molecular clock

In March and early April 2009, a new swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus (S-OIV) emerged in Mexico and the United States (1). During the first few weeks of surveillance, the virus spread worldwide to 30 countries (as of May 11) by human-to-human transmission, causing the World Health Organization to raise its pandemic alert to level 5 of 6. This virus has the potential to develop into the first influenza pandemic of the twenty-first century. Here we use evolutionary analysis to estimate the timescale of the origins and the early development of the S-OIV epidemic. We show that it was derived from several viruses circulating in swine, and that the initial transmission to humans occurred several months before recognition of the outbreak. A phylogenetic estimate of the gaps in genetic surveillance indicates a long period of unsampled ancestry before the S-OIV outbreak, suggesting that the reassortment of swine lineages may have occurred years before emergence in humans, and that the multiple genetic ancestry of S-OIV is not indicative of an artificial origin. Furthermore, the unsampled history of the epidemic means that the nature and location of the genetically closest swine viruses reveal little about the immediate origin of the epidemic, despite the fact that we included a panel of closely related and previously unpublished swine influenza isolates. Our results highlight the need for systematic surveillance of influenza in swine, and provide evidence that the mixing of new genetic elements in swine can result in the emergence of viruses with pandemic potential in humans (2)., Initial genetic characterization of the S-OIV outbreak by the United States Centers for Disease Control suggested swine as its probable source, on the basis of sequence similarity to previously reported [...]

From January 2004 through June 2008, surveillance of dead wild birds in Hong Kong, People's Republic of China, periodically detected highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses (H5N1) in individual birds [...]

Bats are of particular interest as reservoirs for potentially emergent pathogens. Because of their abundance, wide distribution, and mobility, bats confer a greater risk for zoonotic transmission than other animals [...]

Phylogenetic analysis of influenza A viruses (H5N1) isolated from Kuwait in 2007 show that (H5N1) sublineage clade 2.2 viruses continue to spread across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Virus [...]

Phylogenetic analysis of influenza subtype H5N1 viruses isolated from Vietnam during 2005-2007 shows that multiple sublineages are present in Vietnam. Clade 2.3.4 viruses have replaced clade 1 viruses in northern [...]

The isolation of oseltamivir-resistant influenza A (H5N1) variants from two patients who died of the infection, in one case despite the early initiation treatment is reported. Results reveal that the surviving patients had rapid declines in the vital load to undetectable levels during treatment suggesting that resistance could emerge during the recommended regimen of oseltamivir therapy and might be associated with clinical deterioration.

A prospective surveillance program for influenza viruses was established in Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) in July of 2005. We report isolation of H5N1 virus genetically distinct from H5N1 circulating [...]

To understand the genetic diversity and patterns of circulation of rhinoviruses (RV) and enteroviruses (EV) in Singapore, we retrospectively screened 2950 nasal swab samples collected from adults presenting to primary care services with signs of febrile illness in Singapore during 2007‐2013 using sequencing and phylogenetic methods. Through sequencing and phylogenetic analysis, our results show the year‐round circulation of the three rhinovirus species, A, B, and C. A diverse set of RV/EV serotypes were detected in Singapore with a predominance of RV‐A in all years, whereas serotypes EV‐C A21 and EV‐D68 were only sporadically detected. This study highlights the previously unrecognized diversity and burden in the adult population in Singapore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]