A farmer from an isolated livestock operation comes to you saying his entire wor

Question

A farmer from an isolated livestock operation comes to you saying his entire workforce has been sick in bed with a severe fever, chills and aching muscles for the past week. He had similar symptoms about four weeks ago, but it was much more mild and only lasted three days. He jokingly says that even his pigs looked have been a little under the weather recently. This is not funny to you and you immediately quarantine everyone at the farm and call in a CDC team to examine the animals. (a) What microbe do you suspect? (b) Apparently, the microbe has been moving between species. Why is the initial infection the farmer had so different from the infection his workers have? Explain in moderate detail how this might happen by describing the virus’s “living arrangements”, lifecycle and genetic makeup. (c) What are the molecules used for strain designation for this microbe? A farmer from an isolated livestock operation comes to you saying his entire workforce has been sick in bed with a severe fever, chills and aching muscles for the past week. He had similar symptoms about four weeks ago, but it was much more mild and only lasted three days. He jokingly says that even his pigs looked have been a little under the weather recently. This is not funny to you and you immediately quarantine everyone at the farm and call in a CDC team to examine the animals. (a) What microbe do you suspect? (b) Apparently, the microbe has been moving between species. Why is the initial infection the farmer had so different from the infection his workers have? Explain in moderate detail how this might happen by describing the virus’s “living arrangements”, lifecycle and genetic makeup. (c) What are the molecules used for strain designation for this microbe? A farmer from an isolated livestock operation comes to you saying his entire workforce has been sick in bed with a severe fever, chills and aching muscles for the past week. He had similar symptoms about four weeks ago, but it was much more mild and only lasted three days. He jokingly says that even his pigs looked have been a little under the weather recently. This is not funny to you and you immediately quarantine everyone at the farm and call in a CDC team to examine the animals. (a) What microbe do you suspect? (b) Apparently, the microbe has been moving between species. Why is the initial infection the farmer had so different from the infection his workers have? Explain in moderate detail how this might happen by describing the virus’s “living arrangements”, lifecycle and genetic makeup. (c) What are the molecules used for strain designation for this microbe?

Explanation / Answer

a) This is H1N1 virus

b) Initially the virus has transmitted from pig to human. It attacks some cells, then becomes integrated into the host (human) genome as a prophage and is replicated by the host machinery for some weeks. This is the lysogenic cycle of the virus.

After few weeks, the virus starts its lytic cycle, bursting the host cells and releasing its contents. Now , these new viruses formed will infect other cells of the body.

Influenza virus symptoms include fever, chills and aching muscles.

c) H in H1N1 stands for haemagluttinin; N stands for neuraminidase.

There are 16 Haemagluttinin subtypes and 9 Neuraminidase subtypes. So, subtypes 1 of Haemagluttin and subtype 1 of neuraminidase.

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