Farmers Fearful Swine Flu Will Infect Pigs

By Alex in Animals & Pets, Health on May 3, 2009 at 2:58 pm

Forget people! The real concern for farmers is not that humans get swine flu from pigs … it’s the other way around!

Humans have it. Pigs don’t. At least not yet, and U.S. pork producers are doing everything they can to make sure that the new H1N1 virus, known around the world as the "swine flu," stays out of their herds.

"That is the biggest concern, that your herd could somehow contract this illness from an infected person," said Kansas hog farmer Ron Suther, who is banning visitors from his sow barns and requiring maintenance workers, delivery men and other strangers to report on recent travels and any illness before they step foot on his property.

"If a person is sick, we don’t want you coming anywhere on the farm," Suther said.

Link

Previously on Neatorama:

- Scientists: Swine Flu Milder Than Run-Of-The-Mill Winter Flu
- Swine Flu: Bacon’s Revenge
- What is Swine Flu? How Does an Animal Disease Spread to a Human Host?
- 5 Deadliest Pandemics in History


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  1. Some Canadian Skeptic
    May 3rd, 2009 at 3:15 pm

    Point if information here, but it has been reported that the swine flu has infected pigs at least in Alberta. http://www.healthzone.ca/health/article/628217

    I strongly suspect that there are numerous other cases in Canada, US and Mexico, but are going unreported (much like how Mad Cow disease had been very prevalent in American beef, but had gone unreported until well after the fact, and after infected cattle had moved to Canada, which then infected Canadian beef. The media released this information immediately, and the Canadian Beef industry took a few years to recover.

  2. Ali S.
    May 3rd, 2009 at 9:08 pm

    News here in Canada is that in Alberta a pig farm was found to have the flu virus spreading among the animals because of a person who recently came back from Mexico was infected.

  3. Zo
    May 3rd, 2009 at 11:48 pm

    Maybe the pigs shouldn’t be kept so close together!

  4. Thomas
    May 4th, 2009 at 12:40 am

    I for one have no fear of the Manbirdpig flu.

  5. joshua young
    May 10th, 2009 at 2:13 pm

    Lucky me. I hate baccon.


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