A vaccine-resistant chicken flu virus may have provided the breeding ground for a disease that has killed hundreds of humans, researchers have revealed.
The major new study has shown how the common H9N2 virus – endemic in Chinese chicken farms – evolved to become vaccine resistant.
It also provided genes for a range of new flu viruses because of the organism’s ability to swap genes between different trains.
Scientists sequenced genes from the virus over a 20-year period to establish its role in the emergence of the H7N9 influenza A virus.
Some 375 people have succumbed to the virus since 2013.
The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week and involved US and Chinese researchers.
Researcher Dr Jinhua Liu, of the China Agricultural University, said: "The emergence of this dominant H9N2 virus was the first step in the genesis of the H7N9 viruses because it greatly increased the likelihood of reassortment between H9N2 and other flu subtypes."
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 29 December 2014
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