Tighter Surveillance Of Swine Flu In Pigs Needed Worldwide Says CDC

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that there is a “global need for more systemic surveillance of influenza viruses in pigs”, during a press briefing where they explained the findings of a recent study on the genetic and antigenetic properties of the new 2009 H1N1 swine flu virus.

The CDC led study was published online in the journalScience on 22 May and was the work of human and animal health scientists from the US, Mexico, the UK and the Netherlands.

According to the CDC, the study is the first to explain the history and evolution of the human and swine influenza viruses in North America and other areas of the world, as deduced from the detailed analysis of the antigenic and genetic characteristics of the new H1N1 viruses.

In a press briefing on Friday, senior author Dr Nancy Cox, who is director of the CDC’s influenza division said that the study reinforced the fact that:

“Swine are an important reservoir of influenza viruses with the potential to cause significant respiratory outbreaks or even a possible pandemic in humans.”

Cox praised the “excellent collaboration” that went into the study, and stressed the importance of the global co-operation that will be needed to fight the new H1N1 strain, for example by rapidly collecting and sharing specimens, without which it is not possible to understand the origin of the virus and how to stop it spreading and re-emerging.

For the study, the researchers sequenced the genomes of more than 70 samples of the new H1N1 taken from human patients diagnosed with the infection in the recent outbreaks, including 17 viruses isolated in Mexico and 59 viruses from 12 states in the United States.

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