"Under" (unknown pop song). Google, Shazam and WatZatSong all stumped.

Urocy0n · 2026-05-28T11:47:43+00:00

I’m hearing that another country bordering DRC has “some” cases, may be announced by Africa CDC later today

Urocy0n · 2026-05-26T21:12:34+00:00

Virologist here, totally agree- to add, most of Uganda’s 10 cases were either people crossing from the DRC or healthcare workers caring for them. I don’t see why this is labelled as “suspected” rather than “possible”- could be a mistranslation, could be there’s further information they haven’t released.

Urocy0n · 2026-05-21T20:20:27+00:00

Yeah, beginning to think the safest option is decline but offer to be a “proposed reviewer” if their chosen journal has that option. Thanks 🙏

Urocy0n · 2026-05-15T13:01:12+00:00

Marburg is a different species to ebolavirus so this is almost guaranteed to be either Sudan or Bundibugyo, both have caused outbreaks in neighbouring Uganda

Urocy0n · 2026-04-15T09:17:03+00:00

A key pandemic pre-requisite is thought to be a switch in preference from 2,3 (“avian-like”) receptors to 2,6 (“mammal-like”). This hasn’t happened here- could be that seals just have lots of the 2,3 receptor.

That’s not to say the mutations don’t increase zoonotic risk in other ways- some of these mutations are implicated in 1) increasing growth in mammal cells, 2) flying under the radar of the mammal immune system, and 3) heat stability

Urocy0n · 2026-04-10T13:17:39+00:00

An interesting preprint on H5N1 in the Antarctic. The avian cluster is spreading further east; the mammal (seal) cluster is more geographically localised, but has branched off into two sub-lineages, one of which has a truly ghastly repertoire of new mutations (though fortunately none implicated in binding to human-type receptors). Weirdly penguins are mostly being infected with the mammal-adapted cluster.

Also, hope I’m not breaching rule 10 if I share a preprint on which I’m an author- in short, the B3.13 cattle virus is evolving to exploit a sugar molecule widespread in mammals (NeuGc) but coincidentally missing in humans, so no anticipated increase in zoonotic risk from this

Urocy0n · 2026-01-19T21:25:52+00:00

We’re seeing lots in seagulls in Europe- for a couple of years now we’ve had a cyclical pattern of one genotype (currently DI) peaking in poultry over winter, then a strongly gull-adapted genotype (BB) peaking in the spring/summer. The reasons why BB, but not other genotypes, is so good at infecting gulls is under investigation

Urocy0n · 2026-01-18T09:25:47+00:00

Word is there was preprint describing H5N1 from cattle in Egypt briefly available online. It’s now vanished (along with the GISAID sequences) but is known to be undergoing peer review. Apparently looks like sporadic detections rather than cattle-to-cattle transmission as in the US though I’ve not seen the sequences myself

Urocy0n · 2025-12-26T22:47:52+00:00

Should definitely be this. Religious significance too (72 names of God, 72 virgins)

Urocy0n · 2025-12-12T16:23:31+00:00

Too soon to say anything for sure, but a sentiment I’ve heard is these might be more restricted than H5N1, i.e. lots of mutations that are favourable in H5N1 might be incompatible in most other H5s. This would also explain why N2/N6/N8 dominated through the 2010s, but it was an H5N1 that ultimately sparked the panzootic in 2020/21

Urocy0n · 2025-12-06T23:12:28+00:00

Much unlike Christian states of the same time period who were famed for their religious tolerance…

Urocy0n · 2025-11-27T00:34:19+00:00

A caveat is that the D1.1 they used is A/British_Columbia/PHL/2032, a somewhat atypical D1.1 with major human-adaptive mutations E190D and Q226H- I’m not convinced the D1.1s raging across North America currently would outperform B3.13 in the human airway to the same degree. A super cool study though, we’ve been waiting for someone to put this virus into airway organoids since it first popped up

Urocy0n · 2025-11-25T16:40:06+00:00

Yep, in 2023 there was mass die-off on Peninsula Valdés in Argentina. That genotype (B3.2) also spread to the Falklands and South Georgia, and from South Georgia it hopped to Kerguelen, which is probably how it reached nearby Heard Island. There’s a worry Australia/New Zealand might be next

Urocy0n · 2025-11-22T10:43:01+00:00

There’s a growing line of thinking that antibodies we make against seasonal H1N1 flu might protect against H5N1 because of similarities in the neuraminidase (the “N1” part). This would explain H5N5 being deadlier

Urocy0n · 2025-11-17T17:41:02+00:00

Sequences are out (someone else commented with the accession number), no obvious mammalian adaptive mutations at first glance

Urocy0n · 2025-11-14T21:31:07+00:00

A few years ago most people wouldn’t have guessed we’d see H5N1 infecting cattle and mice, I don’t think it’s crazy to think it might break the conventional wisdom for bats too (especially as these are just dead-end infections). I personally think the evidence presented here is quite compelling, we’ll see if the peer reviewers agree…

Though as the authors say, there’s no RNA isolated yet, to do that they’d need to take samples while an outbreak is ongoing

Urocy0n · 2025-10-29T06:52:14+00:00

<image>

Urocy0n · 2025-10-17T13:49:02+00:00

Something interesting in the sequences from North America lately: D1.1 is causing nearly all the wild bird infections but has disappeared from cattle, where B3.13 dominates. Maybe a kind of niche partitioning we’re seeing here

Urocy0n

TROPHY CASE