杏吧原创

SWINE flu is hogging the headlines, but the much more lethal H5N1 avian flu hasn鈥檛 gone away, nor has the possibility that the two viruses could create a still more dangerous hybrid strain.

Now evidence has emerged that some clams can clear water of the avian flu virus. A team led by of the University of Georgia in Athens tested the effect of the Asiatic clam (Corbicula fluminea) with wood ducks, which are highly susceptible to avian flu. Other bivalves that concentrate harmful viruses can poison birds or humans that eat them, but these clams somehow deactivated H5N1.

鈥淏irds that were fed clams exposed to the virus for 48 hours didn鈥檛 get flu,鈥� says Faust. Nor did ducks suffer if they drank water filtered by the clams, but all ducks that drank unfiltered water died, the team reports in Proceedings of the Royal Society B ().

Introducing these clams into lakes and rivers might hamper the spread of flu, though ecological studies would be needed first.