Oregon Pig Has Bird Flu

A pig at an Oregon farm was found to have bird flu, the US Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday. It's the first time the virus has been detected in US swine and raises concerns about bird flu's potential to become a human threat, the AP reports.

• The infection happened at a backyard farm in Crook County, in the center of the state, where different animals share water and are housed together. Last week, poultry at the farm were found to have the virus, and testing this week found that one of the farm's five pigs had become infected.
• The farm was put under quarantine, and all five pigs were euthanized so additional testing could be done. It's not a commercial farm, and US agriculture officials said there is no concern about the safety of the nation's pork supply.

• But finding bird flu in a pig raises worries that the virus may be hitting a stepping stone to becoming a bigger threat to people, says Jennifer Nuzzo, a Brown University pandemic researcher. Pigs can be infected with multiple types of flu, and the animals can play a role in making bird viruses better adapted to humans, she explains.
• The 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic had swine origins, Nuzzo notes. "If we're trying to stay ahead of this virus and prevent it from becoming a threat to the broader public, knowing if it's in pigs is crucial," she says.
• The USDA has conducted genetic tests on the farm's poultry and has not seen any mutations that suggest the virus is gaining an increased ability to spread to people. That indicates the current risk to the public remains low, officials said.

• Marie Culhane, a professor of veterinary population medicine at the University of Minnesota, tells Reuters that pig farmers should look out for more infections. "People need to start increasing their plans to deal with it if it should happen in another herd and another herd," says Culhane, who has researched flu viruses in swine. "Pigs are just really good at picking up influenza viruses."
• So far this year, 36 human cases have been reported—16 in California, 10 in Colorado, six in Washington, two in Michigan, one in Texas, and one in Missouri. Symptoms have been mostly mild, including eye redness, and all but one have been tied to contact with infected animals.

(More bird flu stories.)