Selenium could stall bird flu mutations

Selenium, an essential trace mineral with antioxidant qualities, could hinder the mutation of the bird flu virus into a more virulent form that could pass between humans.

Dr. Julian Spallholz, a researcher of the Texas Tech University, has been working with governments in Southeast Asia to help ensure that the avian influenza virus does not mutate into a form that can easily jump between humans, that is, by fortifying chicken and other animal foods in Southeast Asia with selenium.

Viral mutations are thought to emerge from selenium-deficient regions of the world such as Africa, China and Southeast Asia.

Selenium can be added, fairly easily and inexpensively, to animal feed as a supplement to help prevent the mutation of the bird flu virus.

Selenium can also be attached at the molecular level to existing viral drugs in order to make them more lethal to bird flu viruses.

Selenium is supplied to people through the food chain of animals mostly through plant foods.

World health officials have been preparing for what many increasingly fear could become a worldwide bird flu pandemic.

Scientists recently linked H5N1 avian flu strain to the devastating 1918 Spanish flu outbreak that killed as many as 50 million people across the globe.

But as early as April 2001, scientists Melinda Beck, associate professor of pediatrics and nutrition at the UNC schools of medicine and public health, Heather Nelson, a doctoral student in nutrition at UNC, and Orville Levander, a research chemist with the Agricultural Research Service’s Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, reported that with "adequate selenium levels," chickens are less likely to contract the avian flu virus and that should a chicken contract the virus, it will be less virulent and unlikely to mutate.