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Flu pandemics have been yoke to fluctuations in climate , and fresh inquiry connects the earth ’s four most late pandemics to the cyclical cooling system of the Pacific Ocean near the equator .
The connectedness ? change in sea temperature affect migrate bird , which are major contributor to the spread andmixing of flu virus .
The cyclical cooling of the equatorial Pacific Ocean appears linked to flu pandemics, say researchers who speculate the climate fluctuations are affect migratory birds, natural hosts for flu viruses.
An earlier discipline had link flu pandemics to ocean warming , rather than cool down , but public wellness researchers Jeffrey Shaman of Columbia University and Marc Lipsitch of Harvard University quarrel these finding , saying this analysis relies on flawed data point , such as criminal record of aged pandemic and climate variation , which are less precise and true .
The researchers found that the four flu outbreak that brush the world in the past 100 years — in 1918 , 1957 , 1968 and 2009 ( in this last case , the H1N1 " swine flu " ) — followed a dusk or winter when sea - surface temperatures fall off abnormally low . This cooling is associated withLa Niña , a phase in a larger climate pattern . La Niña is the nerveless twin to El Niño , which is tag by unusually warm temperatures in the equatorial Pacific ; both alter conditions patterns around the globe .
There are three type of influenza viruses . One of them , eccentric A , is by nature carried by waste aquatic Bronx cheer . Type A computer virus , which let in swine flu , can taint not only mass but other mammalian , such as pigs and dogs , as well as other birds , harmonize to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
The long flight and many stopovers made by migrant birds turn these viruses into globe trotters and allow them to mix with each other . This operation , called re - assortment , happens when an beast or soul sway multiple strains of the computer virus that trade genetical info . It can lead to theemergence of new virusesthat are potentially equal to of causing pandemics . " We know that pandemics arise from dramatic changes in the grippe genome . Our hypothesis is that La Niña sets the stage for these change by reshuffle the mixing radiation pattern of migrant razzing , which are a major reservoir for grippe , " said Shaman in a press discharge issued by Columbia University’sMailman School of Public Health .
premature enquiry showed the El Niño / La Niña climate blueprint affect thehealth and behavior of migratory birds , including their population density and trajectory and stop patterns , the researchers observe in their study .
The researchers note that the 2009pandemicis believe to have arisen from swine flu computer virus . It is possible birds carry one or more of the ascendent of the 2009 pandemic computer virus , they write Monday ( Jan. 16 ) in the diary the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
Their results contradict earlier research that showed a link between flu pandemics and moderate to inviolable El Niño issue .
Flu is n’t the only misery that has been link up to variation in this climate cps . Past inquiry has connected El Niño tocivil engagement , and La Niña todrought that grapple Texas , Oklahoma and character of New Mexico .
