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H1N1 Appears To Be Transmittable From Human To Pig

Posted by timothy on from the reciprocity-is-just-good-manners dept.

mpetch writes "In an interesting twist, it appears that H1N1 influenza can be transmitted from humans to swine. Apparently a Canadian pig farmer vacationed in Mexico, returned to Canada and infected about 10% of the swine on an Alberta farm. The swine subsequently developed flu symptoms."

1 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Surprised? by princessproton · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My understanding was that there was some amount of genetic reassortment that allowed the swine flu to be infectious to humans, and to transmit human to human. This altered virus is then somewhat different than the swine flu that typically infects swine, so I think that (in addition to not previously being documented) it is seen as interesting that the virus would jump back to the swine population after mutation. Of course, I may be completely wrong about this, and I encourage anyone better versed in virology to correct me.

    --
    I'm always positive; it's my nature.