Pigs role as flu source overlooked

(ChinaPost.com.tw) – Global health officials underestimated the risk that pig herds might be a source of new influenza strains, choosing instead to focus on the threat of bird flu, researchers in Mexico said on Thursday.

They analyzed samples from people infected with the new H1N1 swine flu virus, which has been confirmed in more than 19,000 people in 64 countries, killing about 120. U.S. health officials say this number reflects only a fraction of the true number of cases.

“This virus most likely evolved from recent swine viruses,” Gerardo Nava of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and colleagues wrote in their report, published in the online journal Eurosurveillance.

“These findings indicate that domestic pigs in North America may have a central role in the generation and maintenance of this virus.”

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