Recombinomics Commentary
December 16. 2004
WSN/33 Chronology
Here is a chronology of events. There were 7 swine sequences deposited at GenBank on Oct 24 and were publicly available around the end of November.
I made my first Recombinomics' What's New post, Flu Bioterrorism? on Dec 4. I notified WHO on Dec 6 of my concerns that two of the isolates, A/swine/Korea/S10/2004(H1N1) and A/swine/Korea/S175/2004(H1N1), were H1N1, had 7 human genes from WSN/33 and there was considerable recombination and reassortment among the six isolates with human genes.
I subsequently sent analysis, which included a number of reasons why the sequences appeared to be real and not artifacts. I initially contacted the Seos' lab in Korea on Dec 7. I believe FAO began confirming sequences on Dec 13.
Interest in WSN/33 appeared to significantly increase in Japan on Dec 15 when the Japanese version of the wired.com story This Genome is Fowl appeared. This interest in Japan was quickly followed by interest in Korea and Geneva.
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