The evolution of influenza A virus at the human-swine interface

Abstract

As the 1918 “Spanish flu” pandemic swept the world, killing more than 20 million people, American veterinarian J.S. Koen noticed pigs with suspiciously similar flu-like respiratory symptoms. Koen wondered if the pigs and people were infected with the same organism and, if so, whether pigs had transmitted the disease to people (zoonosis), or people had infected the pigs (reverse zoonosis). Over the next century, technological advances in genetic sequencing confirmed that the pigs and people in 1918 were infected with similar influenza A viruses of the H1N1 subtype, prompting questions about the human-animal interface.How frequently do humans and animals exchange pathogens? Is the transfer bidirectional? Or does animal-to-human transmission occur more frequently than human-to-animal? Rapidly evolving RNA viruses were found to be particularly adept at host-jumping and represent the bulk of emerging infectious diseases in humans, raising another suite of questions. What evolutionary processes, such as recombination, help viruses make evolutionary leaps to infect new host species? This talk will address these questions and demonstrate how computer science and algorithm development can inform studies in virology, evolutionary biology, and facilitate pandemic preparedness. 

About Tavis Anderson

Tavis Anderson earned his Ph.D. in ecology & evolution at Rutgers University, and honours and undergraduate degrees at The University of Queensland. As a Research Biologist at the National Animal Disease Center (USDA-ARS) he combines computational and experimental studies to understand how RNA viruses evolve as they are transmitted among hosts. Current research efforts include the identification of genetic predictors of influenza host range and virulence, the use of sequence data to understand the genetic and antigenic variability of endemic viruses, and the application of these data in vaccine development.