Name: The world’s oldest virus research lab | DW Documentary
Uploaded: 2021-10-26T15:03:56.000Z
Duration: 42 min 27 s
Description: VoiceTubeの動画で発音を聞きながら英語表現を覚えよう！学べる英語：

Riems — an island in the Bay of Greifswald

It measures just 1-point-3 kilometers long

and is home to the oldest virological research institute

and one of just three facilities world-wide

where research is carried out on large animals

80 different animal diseases are under investigation here,

to escape from the lab under any circumstances.

are among the factors driving the advance of diseases,

such as the West Nile Virus spread by mosquitoes,

Researchers work in laboratories and animals sheds

that are hermetically sealed off from the outdoors.

Working under the highest biosafety conditions, BSL-4,

their aim is to protect animals from deadly diseases.

and the long-term necessities of research.

But the impact of diseases on humans is, of course,

That's why the experts are doing all they can

to gain insights into the ways — or vectors —

In October 2020 Sandra Blome, laboratory supervisor

at the FLI's Institute of Diagnostic Virology,

received a package with extremely hazardous contents.

The delivery had to be handled with the utmost caution.

It contained tissue samples from a dead wild boar.

It was possible the animal had died from a plague

that has recently been spreading in Germany.

The ominous news first came in September 2020.

The carcass of a wild boar was discovered to the east of Berlin,

The animal seemed to have died of a disease

The news came as a shock, but not as a surprise.

in Eastern Europe for years, including in Poland.

Tens of thousands of domestic and wild pigs

The virus was African Swine Fever, or ASF.

In Africa, ASF is transmitted by ticks from warthogs

The animals become infected through direct contact,

Viruses of this kind are comprised only of a protein shell

and their genetic material — so from DNA or RNA.

They aren't able to reproduce on their own.

To do that, they need a living host — such as a pig.

The pathogen penetrates what is called the “host cell”.

programs the cell to produce more, new viruses.

The cell dies and releases thousands of pathogens

Frequently, the animal can ward off the invader

and only becomes slightly ill — if at all.

But sometimes, the virus encounters a host

whose immune system is overwhelmed by the virus.

that might make warthogs and bush pigs sick —

But Eurasian pigs have yet to adapt to the pathogen.

The new tissue sample from the dead wild boar

If it turned out to be positive for the virus,

that meant the disease was spreading further westward.

The virus's journey to Europe began in 2007.

A freighter from East Africa was heading for Georgia.

In the port of Poti, it unloaded meat scraps

Soon, more and more domestic pigs in the region

— here marked in blue — fell ill as well.

Since then the plague has spread relentlessly —

via Russia and the Baltic states toward Western Europe.

In Germany, alarm bells started ringing in 2019,

when the first cases were detected in western Poland.

But by 2018, the virus had already reached Belgium —

字幕リスト動画再生

The world’s oldest virus research lab | DW Documentary

immune

extremely

present

pandemic