The discovery of a new influenza virus that could cause a pandemic in pigs has sparked immediate concern in the pig industry and beyond, according to a paper published in the prestigious SCI journal.

“It’s not quite person-to-person yet.”
China Agricultural University college of Veterinary Medicine Professor Liu Jinhua in an exclusive interview with the first Business reporter said.
Liu is the lead author of the paper.

Fan Fuhao, a researcher at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs’ Breeding Pig Quality Supervision, Inspection and Testing Center in Guangzhou, also told China Business News, “The article serves as a reminder and a warning, not a human case of swine flu. I hope it will not be hyped up.”

The virus is limited to infection

Jin-hua liu team on June 29, China agricultural university and the Chinese center for disease control and prevention Gao Fu team published in the proceedings of the national academy of sciences (PNAS), according to a study since 2016, a named G4 (genotype 4) recombinant strains of influenza virus, began to increase in pigs in China and gradually dominated, at least from 10 provinces to detect the virus in pigs.
In fact, other research teams have isolated the virus in pigs since 2013.

Between 2011 and 2018, researchers collected more than 30,000 nose swabs from pigs from slaughterhouses and veterinary hospitals in 10 provinces in China to monitor influenza viruses and found multiple gene rearrangements of influenza viruses, according to the paper.
G4 is a religand of three viruses: the Eurasian avian influenza virus, the PDM /09 virus that caused the 2009 pandemic, and the North American triple virus.

At the end of December 2015, research results also published in the journal PNAS showed that the Eurasian AVIAN H1N1 virus has the potential to spread among humans and is the most likely virus to cause the next human influenza pandemic, which should be given high attention.
The work was done by a team led by Chen Hualan, a researcher at the Harbin Institute of Veterinary Medicine of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

The paper also notes that the widespread spread of The G4 virus in pigs inevitably increases its exposure to humans.
So far, published studies have shown that There have been two cases of G4 infection in China, reported in 2016 and 2019.
Genetic analysis showed that the two cases were caused by a virus similar to The G4 Eurasian Avian H1N1 virus.
And, “Similar to PDM /09, G4 binds to human cell receptors, replicates in human respiratory epithelial cells, and causes disease and transmission in ferrets.
Moreover, the cross-reactivity of human influenza vaccine strains against G4 virus is low, i.e. the existing human influenza herd immunity is insufficient to effectively resist the virus “.

The content has drawn intense attention.

Serological monitoring of pig farm workers revealed a seropositivity rate of 10.4% (35/338), especially among workers aged 18 to 35, of 20.5% (9/44).
In addition, there was a 4.4% seropositive rate in the general population.

For such a high positive rate, Liu explained that this is only a serum monitoring data, not virus data, not isolated from the pig farm workers G4 virus.
Because people infected with seasonal influenza viruses or vaccinated against influenza can have some effect of antibody cross-reactions, the actual number of infections should be lower than the number of serum monitors.

At the same time, he stressed, it was not yet human-to-human transmission.
During the investigation, it was found that no obvious influenza-like illness occurred in the pig farm workers with positive antibody, and no cluster disease occurred in the pig farm workers.

Liu Jinhua thinks, look now, this virus has limited infective ability only, after the person is contacted, may appear antibody turns positive, but the virus still is difficult to replicate in the person body effectively cause to come on.

Surveillance is not in vogue

Zoonoses, which are transmitted from animals to humans, are among the hottest topics in academic circles due to coVID-19, said an industry expert who studies zoonoses.
The value of the paper is that combining The G4 virus with reported human cases is a wake-up call.
However, whether there is human-to-human transmission of the G4 virus after transmission to humans will need to be closely watched in the future.

Feng Yonghui, chief analyst of Sohu.com, told China Business News that swine flu is not among the top three swine diseases in terms of morbidity, mortality and transmission.
As for G4, the new swine flu virus, it is necessary to pay attention to it, but more importantly, scientific and objective interpretation of the experimental data in the paper is needed, otherwise it will easily cause unnecessary panic.

‘You can’t just use lab studies as an analogy,’ Mr. Feng said. ‘After all, the sample size is limited.’
“If the study shows that 10.4 per cent of pig farm workers have been infected, then out of China’s 40 million pig farmers, more than 4 million people will be infected”, such an inference is clearly unscientific.

In terms of the pathogenicity of the virus to pigs, laboratory data showed that the pathogenicity of G4 virus was higher than that of the “pure” Eurasian avian virus in the early epidemic, and pig farms should pay attention to the prevention and control of the disease, Liu said.
I would also like to remind you that after the African Swine fever epidemic in 2018, the structure of China’s pig breeding industry has undergone fundamental changes. Large-scale pig farms have attached great importance to biosafety, effectively prevented the occurrence of a variety of infectious pig diseases, and largely suppressed the prevalence of G4 virus in pig herds.
From the perspective of public health safety, although few cases of infection have been reported, there are still cases of human infection. The threat is real and it is important to be vigilant.

Currently novel Coronavirus is still spreading rapidly around the world and the pressure of preventing imported virus from abroad is increasing.
Some parts of China have clustered, and repeated alarm bells are still ringing from time to time.
Although the cause of the epidemic has yet to be explored by scientists, social consensus has gradually been formed to strictly prevent “disease from entering the mouth”.
Recently, the Capital Civilization Engineering Foundation and Civilization Magazine, together with 100 experts from all over the country, proposed a “dining table revolution”, in the hope that the “dining table revolution” with broad public participation could help prevent and control the epidemic.
“A healthy and civilized lifestyle is the best vaccine for disease eradication,” said a study released by the Earth and Resources Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Liu Xiaojie, an associate researcher at the institute, told reporters that establishing a healthy and civilized lifestyle to reduce disease exposure could cut off the spread of the disease.

From table to kitchen waste, what does a healthy and civilized lifestyle include?
How do you form a habit?

Eat every meal healthy and safe

The infection data of hepatitis, gastric cancer and other diseases increasing year by year released by the World Health Organization showed the effect of sharing meals on the transmission of foodborne diseases.
“Unhealthy lifestyle, diet, environmental pollution, food pollution and other key carcinogenic factors have made it imperative to change people’s living habits and diet.”
Liu xiaojie said.

“I hope everyone will eat every meal with care like in a Dream of Red Mansions.”
Zheng Linchang, a professor at the Institute of Regional Economics at Hebei University, hopes that focusing on health will become a dining habit for everyone. “It’s not necessarily about being meticulous about food, but more importantly about safety and health.”

What challenges do we face in promoting a “dining table revolution” and fostering a healthy and civilized lifestyle?
Experts believe that, on the one hand, we need to see a growing demand for separate meals, buffet, table meal and other acceptance is increasingly high, some catering enterprises are committed to the implementation of separate meals, through big data, cloud computing to help residents calculate what to eat.
In the process of epidemic prevention and control, residents have gained a further understanding of food-borne diseases, and the separate meal system has gained initial impetus.
On the other hand, family meals carry the cultural concept of “in the same boat” and “helping each other”, which has been running for thousands of years.
Wu Jian, deputy dean of the School of Environment at Renmin University in Beijing, told reporters that changing habits with cultural characteristics would be a “very slow process”.
“It is very difficult to change customs, and some traditional dishes are not suitable for separate meals.
“In the early days, separate meals meant higher costs for families, making it more difficult to implement separate meals.”
Jasonwoo said.
Wang Jie, a professor at the Philosophy department of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, said: “Separate meals started a momentum during the SARS outbreak, but people seemed to forget it soon after the outbreak was over.”

But the expert thinks commonly, this “dining table revolution” carry out has a lot of advantage condition.
“In the past, most of them were based on appeals and guidance. With the formulation of a healthy China development strategy by the Central Committee in 2017, the Healthy China Action Plan (2019-2030) was further proposed in July 2019. As one of the healthy lifestyles, dining system has specific targets.
Zheng Linchang told reporters.

Civilized repast cannot flow in a gust of wind

Reporters learned in the interview, Beijing, Shanghai and other places have issued the corresponding meal plan.
On June 24, Shandong province issued a guide to catering and dining system, setting a “local standard” for the system.
In many catering enterprises across the country, the public chopsticks and spoons are placed in a conspicuous position.

How to live a healthy and civilized life?
Liu Xiaojie thinks, should start from key industry, key domain, key crowd.
“First of all, cafeterias at all levels will continue to introduce buffets, encouraging catering enterprises to use buffets in various banquets;
Secondly, encourage small and medium-sized catering enterprises to provide public chopsticks, spoons;
Thirdly, guide enterprises to design, produce and sell tableware and sanitary ware for family meals.
Finally, advocacy for foodborne disease transmission goes to schools, communities and businesses.”
Zheng Linchang further explained.

The reform of cultural customs is the biggest difficulty in the implementation of separate meal system.
Wang Jie analysis, there are material and spiritual reasons for this.
From the material point of view, as far as the catering enterprises are concerned, the implementation of separate meal system will increase the cost of human and material resources, and at the same time increase the amount of washing utensils.
For a private family, there are only a few people in a family and three meals a day. If each dish and soup is eaten separately, it will not only increase the cost but also be more cumbersome and make housework more difficult.
From a spiritual point of view, to change a social custom that has been practiced for thousands of years and to form a new custom requires the joint efforts of all social strata and continuous guidance.

The first step is to “target the symptoms” and “attack them one by one”.
“The government can make some proactive policies in a timely manner.
According to the actual situation, some policies to encourage the implementation of separate meals can be introduced in stages.
Recently, for example, Shanghai business committee, market supervision bureau jointly developed for Shanghai in the food service units dining management norms “, used to separate the tableware, places, people, processes, and so on each link all made the rules, and gives the four separate eating patterns: ‘dispatch type’ ‘on type’ ‘the dining-table centiliter invite type’ and ‘buffet style, to some extent, to satisfy the customer different needs, solve the problem of Chinese food is unfavorable use individual.”
Wangjie said.

And catering enterprises can also carry out some timely and appropriate service innovation.
“For some qualified catering enterprises, we can combine the actual situation of the enterprises and the market to explore the innovation of separate service at a lower cost.
For example, some catering enterprises have introduced the concept of “double chopsticks”, “different prices”, “artificial meal sets”, and even separate dishes for some dishes.
“Wang Jie told reporters.

How to make a healthy and civilized lifestyle a habit

From the kitchen table to kitchen waste, a healthy and civilized lifestyle also includes recycling.
Starting from the root of food, not only can avoid waste, reduce pollution, but also can protect the environment.
Shanghai has taken the lead in garbage classification, and Beijing, Shandong, Jiangsu and Hubei provinces have also introduced corresponding measures.

The reporter learned in the interview that garbage recycling classification and separate meal system in the process of promotion have had “halfway” experience.
How to make a healthy and civilized lifestyle a habit, According to Zheng, besides guidance and encouragement, coercion and restraint are also important.
“In some countries, different garbage bags need to be purchased, filled up and put in a special place, or they will be punished.
Some people will secretly throw away old TVS and other appliances, but the cost of recycling is too high.
At present, there are still no mandatory restrictions, such as mandatory meal sharing and mandatory classification. The timely use of mandatory restrictions also helps to develop habits.”

In addition to “block” the way, Wu Jian reminds, “thin” the action also cannot ignore.
In her opinion, the final formation of habits depends on the mobilization of the enthusiasm of every social subject.
“It is a good idea to know what is right and what is right. For example, the measures taken this time have helped people form good hygiene habits.
What is good for the society should be observed by everyone. To build a resource-saving and environment-friendly society, everyone must pay for it.
“It has been proven that when you tell the public what kind of behavior is healthy, it is acceptable to the general public.”
Jasonwoo said.

The PLA academy of military medical academy of military sciences, suzhou abon technology co., LTD and yunnan Watson (300142) biological technology co., LTD., joint research and development will be coronavirusmRNA genetic engineering vaccine, on June 25, start Ⅰ period in tree orchid (hangzhou) hospital clinical trials.
This is also the first novel coronavirusmRNA vaccine approved for clinical trial in China.

MRNA vaccine is a new form of vaccine in recent years. Its basic principle is to introduce the mRNA expressing antigen target into the body through a specific delivery system, express proteins in the body and stimulate the body to produce specific immunological response, so that the vaccinator can obtain immune protection.
Because it turns the human body into a processing plant for its own drugs, revolutionizing the way vaccines are made.
Due to the high technical threshold of mRNA vaccine, only a few mRNA vaccine varieties developed in the United States and Germany have entered the clinical trial stage, and China has never approved mRNA vaccine to enter the clinical trial before.

The first clinical approval of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine was approved and entered into clinical trials, achieving the breakthrough of “zero” mRNA vaccine in China, indicating that China’s mRNA vaccine research and development level and regulatory capacity have been among the forefront of the world.
Domestic NCP mRNA vaccine has three advantages: more accurate selection of vaccine antigen target, high specificity of induced neutralization antibody, and better safety of vaccine;
All the core raw materials and equipment have been localized, and the production capacity can be rapidly enlarged.
It can be stored at room temperature for a week or for a long time at 4℃. The cold chain cost is low and it is easy to achieve mass vaccination.

On June 18 local time, WHO chief scientist Sumiya Swaminathan said that at least 200 coVID-19 vaccines are under development and about 10 have entered human trials. Three of them will soon enter phase III clinical trials, including one from China.
Sumiya Swaminathan notes that China has several vaccine candidates, and the results of phase I and II clinical trials show promise.

Sumiya Swaminathan also says one or two successful vaccine candidates could be available by the end of the year.
The goal is to have 2 billion doses of vaccine produced by 2021.
Fortunately, novel Coronavirus appears to have far fewer mutations than influenza viruses, and the mutations that lead to such critical parts as disease severity and immune response have not yet been shown.