News and notes from Reston (tm).

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Made in Reston: Our Most Famous Export Winds Up in China

Thats all folks.jpegWho says we don't make things in America any more? Reston's most famous export, the strain of Ebola virus so nice they named it after a planned community, has made it all the way from Isaac Newton Square to China!

First, it showed up in pigs in the Philippines. Now, Ebola Reston has shown up in "domestic pigs" in China. Epidemiologists, here's your fancy science talk:

Historically, Reston virus (RESTV) has been found to be associated with outbreaks of disease only in nonhuman primates. Its spread to domestic pigs was reported for the first time in 2008. In this study, we report the discovery, molecular detection, and phylogenetic analysis of Reston virus (RESTV) in domestic pigs in China. A total of 137 spleen specimens from pigs that died after showing typical clinical signs of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), and for which infection with porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) was confirmed by RT-PCR, were collected from three farms in Shanghai from February to September 2011. Of these samples, 2.92 % (4/137) were found to be positive for RESTV. All of the positive piglets were under the age of 8 weeks and were co-infected with PRRSV. Sequences were found that shared 96.1 %-98.9 % sequence similarity with those of two RESTV variants that had been discovered previously in domestic pigs and cynomolgus macaques from the Philippines. We therefore conclude that RESTV was present in domestic pigs in Shanghai, China.
What they said.

Let's hear it for American Restonian can-do! Who wants bacon?

3 comments:

  1. I call BS on that photograph. It's obviously a leaked photograph of the conceptual model for the workforce housing units that will be built at the Reston National Golf Course. I understand 300 of these units will be stacked on top of each other just on the current site of the 9th hole alone.

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  2. Take Mao Wife, PleaseSeptember 26, 2012 at 2:29 PM

    Better hold off on ordering the sweet and sour pork at the local China Express, or whatever it's called.

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  3. Seems like a fair trade, as we Restonianites deal with bamboo, mile-a-minute weed, and the stink bugs.

    ReplyDelete

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