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Molecular virology: was the 1918 flu avian in origin?

Antonovics J, Hood ME, Baker CH

Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA. ja8n@virginia.edu

Taubenberger et al. claim that the 1918 influenza virus was derived from an avian source and adapted to humans shortly before the pandemic. However, we do not believe that this conclusion, which has been widely disseminated in the popular press and in scientific journals, is supported by their phylogenetic evidence.

Published 27 April 2006 in Nature, 440(7088): E9; discussion E9-10.
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