Pig in Canada gets "Swine Flu" from man who visited Mexico (Update)

Canada pig flu case shows need for surveillance

ROME (Reuters) - The transmission of the new H1N1 virus from a man to a herd of swine in Canada is a reason for concern and confirms the need for increased surveillance of pig farms, the United Nations food agency said on Sunday.

Meanwhile, in the United States, a vaccine is reported to be ready in the fall.

And in Mexico, the news is: Mexico is past the peak in the flu.

That was fast, it was supposed to be a major development in about two weeks.

But I have to ask, why is it that people who can afford getting a vaccination against the strain in Mexico, are doing so and have been getting them in the past few days. According to my friend, it is expensive and it is being done only in the private hospitals at this time.

It will be interesting to see how the virus strain mutates in the group of pigs that contracted the virus from the man in Canada.

Someone is making some big money off this. The big question is who gave it to who first. My bet is, it wasn't with the pig as was reported.

And last, why is it that there are no media reports (I haven't seen any at this time) of Mexican government officials who live in Mexico not having the virus?

We have seen one known individual from Obama's lead security team contract a "flu virus." But no one in the Mexican government.

Update:

It seems that there is now concern on the infected pigs in Canada and what type of mutation the virus takes on. Take note on it jumping for the first time from one species to another.

Swine flu goes person-to-pig; could it jump back?

That is a foolish question to put in a headline, hell yes it can jump back. Could it get stronger?

"Could it gain virulence? Yes," Juan Lubroth, an animal health expert at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, said Sunday. "It could also become milder. It could go in both directions."

Now, the next statement shows you just how idiotic some people are.

Lubroth stressed that sick people should avoid contact with swine, but said healthy farmworkers don't need to take any extra precautions because the chance of catching flu from a pig is small.

Unlike the H5N1 bird flu virus, which infects the blood, organs and tissue of poultry, most swine flus are confined to the respiratory tract, meaning the risk of a human getting infected by a pig is "probably 10 or a 1,000 times less," Lubroth said.

This virus is a "cocktail" virus and has four strains as one endemic in humans, two endemic in pig, and one endemic in birds.

That means this virus can go from human to pig to bird and back again. The question is how will it mutate.

And last:

Canadian officials announced Saturday that the virus had infected about 200 pigs on a farm — the first evidence that it had jumped to another species. It was linked to a farmworker who recently returned from Mexico, where 19 people have died from the virus. The farmworker has recovered, and the mildly infected pigs have been quarantined.

(emphasis added)