MADISON, Wis., Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have found more evidence that viruses could be responsible for at least some of the obesity epidemic.
Leah Whigham, the lead researcher, and her colleagues have linked a human adenovirus, AD37, to obesity in chickens. Two related viruses, which have been associated with obesity in animals, are linked to obesity in humans.
Whigham said there are reasons to think that something other than changes in eating and exercise habits is behind the increase in obesity.
"The prevalence of obesity has doubled in adults in the United States in the last 30 years and has tripled in children," the study noted. "With the exception of infectious diseases, no other chronic disease in history has spread so rapidly, and the etiological factors producing this epidemic have not been clearly identified."
She also pointed out that there have been previous instances of diseases blamed on environmental factors that proved to be linked to viruses. Ulcers, for example, for a long time were blamed on stress.
