Tracing evolution of chicken flu virus yields insight into origins of deadly H7N9 strain

(St. Jude Children's Research Hospital) An international research team has shown how changes in a flu virus that has plagued Chinese poultry farms for decades helped create the novel avian H7N9 influenza A virus that has sickened more than 375 people since 2013. The research appears in the current online early edition of the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.