Quote:
Most flu viruses can live one to two days on nonporous surfaces, and 8 to 12 hours on porous surfaces. But a 2006 study found that avian influenza seemed particularly hardy, surviving as long as six days on some surfaces.
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Source:
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/health/15real.html
While I agree that snakes are not likely to suffer from flu, I still think that single cell organisms with DNA should not necessarily be ruled out as virus replicators.
More microbes are likely present in an uncapped body of water than the entire population of China.
ETA
Quote:
Even bacteria can get a virus! The viruses that infect bacteria are called bacteriophages, and certain bacteriophages have been studied in detail in the lab (making them some of the viruses we understand best).
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https://www.khanacademy.org/science/...bacteriophages
ETA Ii For the record & FWIW from the same paper:
Quote:
Bacteriophages attack only their host bacteria, not human cells, so they are potentially good candidates to treat bacterial diseases in humans.
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