Swine flu raises questions about new strain as pork industry issues advisory

The H1N1 influenza virus. [image credit Dr. F. A. Murphy, CDC]The Centers for Disease Control’s description of a new strain of swine flu sounds like something out of a fictional lab: “The viruses contain a unique combination of gene segments that have not been reported previously among swine or human influenza viruses in the U.S. or elsewhere…It is not anticipated that the seasonal influenza vaccine will provide protection against the swine flu H1N1 viruses.” This isn’t the late president Gerald Ford’s swine flu.

Farm Futures issued a bio-security notice and quoted a CDC expert on the new strain’s makeup: “The AH1N1 flu strain is quite unusual. Dr. Nancy Cox, chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said it contained gene segments from North American swine, bird and human flu strains as well as one from Eurasian swine. Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of respiratory diseases for the CDCP, says although they don't yet know the extent of the problem they think this is a time for major concern.”

Farm Futures issued advice from the National Pork Board, but the recommendations are aimed at screening workers rather than pigs, even limiting visitors to pig farms and paying attention to ventilation systems. The result of all these advisories and announcements is a verbal wildlfire on the Web.

Bloggers and readers have jumped on the topic and some have criticized the federal government for not sealing the border. Great Britain is screening every passenger arriving in the country from Mexico, according to The Telegraph (London).

The Centers for Disease Control said swine flu viruses don’t normally infect humans. “However, sporadic human infections with swine flu have occurred. Most commonly, these cases occur in persons with direct exposure to pigs (e.g. children near pigs at a fair or workers in the swine industry). In addition, there have been documented cases of one person spreading swine flu to others. For example, an outbreak of apparent swine flu infection in pigs in Wisconsin in 1988 resulted in multiple human infections, and, although no community outbreak resulted, there was antibody evidence of virus transmission from the patient to health care workers who had close contact with the patient.”

What happens next is anybody’s guess. A virus basically has one goal in life—it’s the rabbit of the germ world. “Viruses exist for one purpose only: to reproduce. To do that, they have to take over the reproductive machinery of suitable host cells,” said Microbe World.

Politico reported John Brennan, White House homeland-security adviser, said there is “no evidence whatsoever” of bioterrorism.

Still, that doesn’t stop the imaginations in high gear on the Web. The Independent (UK) asked in an article, “Has globalisation made us more catastrophe-prone?” A commenter posting under the name djangovsartana wrote, “Globalisation is a Western imposed value on the rest of the world.” So much for being informed about ancient history.

So far, the US has documented 20 cases of the new strain of swine flu in 5 states. New York has the most with 8, California 7, Kansas 2, Ohio 1 and Texas 2. However the US and Mexico are neighbors and at present we still have a quasi-open border policy, so I predict more cases will emerge.

The CDC advisory said, “Clinicians should consider swine influenza infection in the differential diagnosis of patients with febrile respiratory illness and who 1) live in San Diego or Imperial counties, California, or Guadalupe County, Texas, or traveled to these counties or 2) who traveled recently to Mexico or were in contact with persons who had febrile respiratory illness and were in one of the three U.S. counties or Mexico during the 7 days preceding their illness onset.” CDC said people with febrile respiratory illness should stay home to avoid spreading infections, but thus far, no travel restrictions have been issued.

How the strain evolves is anyone’s guess, but it appears we are a step away from a pandemic of a new strain of flu that has been more severe for Mexico than for the US. The illness certainly doesn’t bode well for the pork industry, but at present, this strain has not been found in pigs in the US Farm Futures said.

Swine flu raises questions about new strain as pork industry issues advisory by Kay B. Day

Update on Monday, April 27, 2009 at 1:14PM by Kay B. Day, Editor

The CDC now shows 40 cases in the US, with more cases suspected in a small South Carolina town where some private school students had flu-like symptoms after returning from a trip to Mexico.

If you want to keep up with CDC updates, both the number of cases and advisories, they're posted on the 'Swine flu' page.