Cows have human flu receptors, raising stakes on bird flu outbreak in dairy cattle--study

Cows have human flu receptors, study shows, raising the stakes on the bird flu outbreak in dairy cattle | CNN Cows have the same kinds of gateways into their cells as humans and birds, a new study shows. The finding suggests that cows could be mixing bowls - hosts that could help H5N1 bird flu learn to spread in humans. Brenda Goodman, Nadia Kounang CNN

One of the first questions that needed to be answered was how the virus was infecting cows in the first place.

Researchers in the US and Denmark took on that task. Their findings, published as a preprint study, show that cows have the same receptors for flu viruses as humans and birds. Scientists fear that cows could be mixing bowls – hosts that help the virus learn to better spread between people. Such an event, while rare, experts say, could put us on the path to another pandemic.

...