Rhiza Labs FluTracker Forum

http://www.douglas-budget.com/articles/ ... news11.txt



Another "informed" public health "professional".

Well, to be fair, they do in Africa. My concern is not cooked pork, that is not a concern. Although I would not eat pork sushi. My concern is crowds of thousands of people filing through the animal show at the fair. The pigs probably caught it from the humans. But to think that they could not then retransmit it to humans at the fair is unsupportable.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... DNVMNmqyCA



No probably they were sickened by other humans in the dormitory. But you can not exclude the possibility that the pigs were the vector. What information available is giving this government flunky the ability to do a traceback on a viral transmission? This is classic govspeak. "Information available does not suggest..." Well, the information available does not suggest the children were sickened due to alien abduction either, does it? The information available does not suggest that that USDA spokesman breathed on the children either. That is because there is no information available.

Three pigs at the Minnesota State Fair tested positive in late August for H1N1, the flu virus that is causing the current pandemic, the Agriculture Department reported Friday.

The department said the test results were preliminary and would not be confirmed for a few days. But if the results are confirmed, the pigs will be the first in this country found to harbor the virus. Infected pigs have been found in eight other countries.

The virus does not seem to make pigs very sick. Of 103 pigs tested at the Minnesota fair, in St Paul, only three were found to be carrying the virus, and all appeared healthy. They probably caught the virus from infected people, researchers said.

Officials at many state fairs this year worried that people would infect pigs and that reports of infected pigs would create a scare that would harm the pork industry, even though there is no risk of infection from eating cooked meat.

It is not clear what the findings mean for public health, scientists said. The virus is already spreading widely among people, and in fact is far more common in humans than in pigs, so people seem far less likely to catch it from pigs than from one another.

“It’s not surprising to find it in pigs,” said Dr. Jeff Bender, director of animal health and food safety at the University of Minnesota, who conducted the testing along with researchers from the University of Iowa. “We do know that viruses move between species.”

One concern about animals’ harboring the virus is the possibility that viruses will change as they move back and forth between species, perhaps by mixing with other viruses.

A veterinarian for the Minnesota State Fair, Dr. Tom Hagerty, was traveling on the East Coast late Friday and said he had not heard of the test findings. Dr. Hagerty sounded surprised at the news but not alarmed, because most of the pigs, or perhaps all, that were at the state fair at the same time as a group of 4-H children who became ill were to be sent to the slaughterhouse shortly afterward.

“I would be much more bothered if I heard that these had been breeding pigs,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/us/17 ... nted=print

INFLUENZA PANDEMIC (H1N1) 2009, ANIMAL HEALTH (11): NORWAY
**********************************************************
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>

Date: Sun 18 Oct 2009
Source: Pigprogress.net [edited]
<http://www.pigprogress.net/news/more-norwegian-pig-herds-infected-with-swine-flu-id3531.html>


More Norwegian pig herds infected with swine flu
------------------------------------------------
Another 8 pig herds in Nord-Trondelag in Norway have been diagnosed
with the swine flu, and Minister of Agriculture Lars Peder Brekk has
asked that pig farmers be given priority when the mass vaccination
program against the flu begins.

Experts said the flu spreads from humans to pigs more easily than
earlier believed. The Minister is therefore concerned about the
possibility that farmers will infect their own animals, and that the
disease will gain a foothold in Norway, which has up to now been free
of the disease among animals.

A pig herd of 500 animals were mass slaughtered on Tuesday [13 Oct
2009], after swine flu was confirmed on a farm in the county of
Nord-Trondelag last week. Another 900 pigs from a 2nd farm will also
be slaughtered. This is the 1st time that swine flu has been
diagnosed on pigs in Norway, and the mass slaughtering is a measure
to prevent the disease from spreading. The slaughtered animals will
be incinerated.

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
promed@promedmail.org>

[Norway reported to the OIE, so far, 3 H1N1 outbreaks on pig farms.
The initial, immediate notification was submitted on 12 Oct 2009;
follow-up reports were submitted on 13 and 16 Oct 2009; all 3,
including a map, are available at
<http://www.oie.int/wahis/public.php?page=event_summary&reportid=8515>.

The most recent follow-up report, number 2, submitted on 16 Oct 2009,
included the following epidemiological comments: "More herds in the
district are infected though not all of them have been tested and
confirmed as having the pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009 variant. No
animal contact between this herd and the 2 first confirmed cases. The
virus seems to be extremely contagious between humans and pigs. On 15
October, we decided to abandon our attempt at culling infected herds."

The international public and animal health agencies FAO, OIE, and the
WHO published in May 2009 a common statement pertaining to pork
safety, which included the following (see ProMED-mail archive number
20090507.1710):

"Influenza viruses are not known to be transmissible to people
through eating processed pork or other food products derived from pigs.

Heat treatments commonly used in cooking meat (such as 70 deg C/160
deg F core temperature) will readily inactivate any viruses
potentially present in raw meat products.

Pork and pork products, handled in accordance with good hygienic
practices recommended by the WHO, Codex Alimentarius Commission, and
the OIE, will not be a source of infection.

Authorities and consumers should ensure that meat from sick pigs or
pigs found dead are not processed or used for human consumption under
any circumstances." - Mod.AS]

[The HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map for Norway can be accessed
at <http://healthmap.org/promed?v=60.7,8.7,5>. - CopyEd.EJP]

[see also:
Influenza pandemic (H1N1) 2009, animal health (10): Ireland 20091002.3427
Influenza pandemic (H1N1) 2009, animal (09): UK (NI) swine, OIE 20090918.3280
Influenza pandemic (H1N1) 2009 (42): China, pork consumption 20090907.3146
Influenza pandemic (H1N1) 2009, animal health (08): Singapore,
swine 20090904.3114
Influenza pandemic (H1N1) 2009, animal health (07): Chile, avian 20090829.3036
Influenza pandemic (H1N1) 2009, animal health (06): Canada,
swine 20090828.3027
Influenza pandemic (H1N1) 2009, animal health (05): Austr.,
swine 20090826.2999
Influenza pandemic (H1N1) 2009, animal health (04): Chile, avian,
OIE 20090823.2978
Influenza pandemic (H1N1) 2009, animal health (03): Chile, avian,
RFI 20090821.2961
Influenza pandemic (H1N1) 2009, animal health (02): Austr.,
swine 20090820.2951
Influenza pandemic (H1N1) 2009, animal health: Canada (QC) 20090729.2661
Influenza A (H1N1): animal health (17), Argentina, OIE 20090703.2401
Influenza A (H1N1): animal health (16), Argentina, swine, OIE 20090626.2322
Influenza A (H1N1): animal health (14), EU preparedness, Egypt 20090615.2220
Influenza A (H1N1): animal health (13) swine, Canada, origin,
RFI 20090615.2215
Influenza A (H1N1): animal health (12) swine trial inf. 20090605.2088
Influenza A (H1N1): animal health (11) swine trial inf. 20090604.2067
Influenza A (H1N1): animal health (10) swine, Canada, cull 20090514.1813
Influenza A (H1N1): animal health (09), swine, Canada 20090513.1790
Influenza A (H1N1): animal health (08), food safety, FAO/OIE/WHO 20090507.1710
Influenza A (H1N1): animal health (07), swine, Canada, OIE 20090506.1691
Influenza A (H1N1): animal health (06), Canada, OIE 20090505.1683
Influenza A (H1N1): animal health (05), swine, Canada, FAO 20090505.1680]

Commentary

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/10190 ... pread.html

1:13 pm

October 19, 2009

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byline goes here

By Frank James

It's now official: at least one pig in Minnesota has been confirmed to have had the swine flu virus, according to the Agriculture Department Monday.

A sample from a pig which was at the Minnesota State Fair has tested positive for the H1N1 virus infection by scientists using the most accurate methods available.

The Agriculture Department was quick to point out, however, that the presence of the virus in a show pig doesn't mean commercial herds are infected since show animals don't mix with their commercial cousins.

One big concern for the Agriculture Department and U.S. hog farmers is the impact the news of an infected pig might have on U.S. hog sales domestically and abroad. Sales could plunge amid unfounded fears that eating pork products can infect humans with the flu virus.

A major scientific worry is that the H1N1 virus, now that it's back in the pig population, could recombine its DNA with another virus pigs may be harboring and become an even more virulent strain. Of course, there's the possibility it could combine its genetic material with another virus and become less virulent too.

An excerpt from the Agriculture Department's press release:

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) has confirmed the presence of 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus in a pig sample collected at the Minnesota State Fair submitted by the University of Minnesota. Additional samples are being tested.
"We have fully engaged our trading partners to remind them that several international organizations, including the World Organization for Animal Health, have advised that there is no scientific basis to restrict trade in pork and pork products," said Vilsack. "People cannot get this flu from eating pork or pork products. Pork is safe to eat."
Sequence results on the hemagglutinin, neuraminidase and matrix genes from the virus isolate are compatible with reported 2009 pandemic H1N1 sequences. The samples collected at the 2009 Minnesota State Fair were part of a University of Iowa and University of Minnesota cooperative agreement research project funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which documents influenza viruses where humans and pigs interact at such as fairs.
The infection of the fair pig does not suggest infection of commercial herds because show pigs and commercially raised pigs are in separate segments of the swine industry that do not typically interchange personnel or animal stock. USDA continues to remind U.S. swine producers about the need for good hygiene, biosecurity and other practices that will prevent the introduction and spread of influenza viruses in their herd and encourage them to participate in USDA's swine influenza virus surveillance program.
categories: Health
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/200 ... _in_m.html

Good thing they had pigs at a fair during a level 6 H1N1 pandemic.
Talk about prevention.
Where do they get these people?