Hepatitis E Virus Variant in Farmed Mink, Denmark

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a zoonotic virus for which pigs are the primary animal reservoir. To investigate whether HEV occurs in mink in Denmark, we screened feces and tissues from domestic and wild mink. Our finding of a novel HEV variant supports previous findings of HEV variants in a variety of species

Novel Clade 2.3.4.4b Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A H5N8 and H5N5 Viruses in Denmark, 2020

Since late 2020, outbreaks of H5 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses belonging to clade 2.3.4.4b have emerged in Europe. To investigate the evolutionary history of these viruses, we performed genetic characterization on the first HPAI viruses found in Denmark during the autumn of 2020. H5N8 viruses from 14 wild birds and poultry, as well as one H5N5 virus from a wild bird, were characterized by whole genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. The Danish H5N8 viruses were found to be genetically similar to each other and to contemporary European clade 2.3.4.4b H5N8 viruses, while the Danish H5N5 virus was shown to be a unique genotype from the H5N5 viruses that circulated at the same time in Russia, Germany, and Belgium. Genetic analyses of one of the H5N8 viruses revealed the presence of a substitution (PB2-M64T) that is highly conserved in human seasonal influenza A viruses. Our analyses showed that the late 2020 clade 2.3.4.4b HPAI H5N8 viruses were most likely new incursions introduced by migrating birds to overwintering sites in Europe, rather than the result of continued circulation of H5N8 viruses from previous introductions to Europe in 2016/2017 and early 2020

Smoke and Mirrors: Opportunity and Aspiration in 14-19 Education

The policy discourse around those young people who are the focus of the 14-19 agenda is one of negativity which, in its use of language such as non-academic, disaffected, disadvantaged places young people firmly within a deficit model. This model frames these young people as low achievers with low aspirations, routinely dismisses them as non-academic yet claims to offer opportunities in the form of a vocational education which, according to the rhetoric, will lead to a lifelong (nirvana?) of high skill, high paid work, personal satisfaction and opportunity (providing they continue to engage in lifelong learning), something which many young people take on trust. Drawing on original empirical research, and working within a framework informed by Marxist and social justice concepts, this paper contests the assumption that these young people have low aspirations, arguing that falling within a deficit model, constrained by discourses of negativity, powerless to change a system which militates against them and lacking the agency for change their chances of achieving those aspirations are almost non-existent. The paper poses a number of questions: What are 'high' and 'low' aspirations? What is 'non ? academic'? Why, every year, are nearly half of all young people characterized in this way? What is, or is not, an 'opportunity'? It argues that notions of opportunity are, in fact, smoke and mirrors, a massive deception which enables the channelling of these young people into the low pay, low skill work market in readiness to fulfil government demands for cheap labour as and when it is needed. Finally, it concludes with proposals for change in the 14-19 and PCET systems which could provide a more equitable and effective framework for young people to achieve their hopes and dreams