New Strain of Swine Flu Virus with “Pandemic Potential” Found in China
Recent report discovers that a dangerous virus in pigs has started to pass on to slaughterhouse workers.
Credit: Jo-Anne McArthur / Oikeutta Elaimille
A new strain of virus that is similar to the 2009 Swine Flu that killed nearly 300,000 people, has been found passing from pigs to humans in China.
Scientists behind the study have described the new strain as having ‘pandemic potential’, reports BBC News.
The new strain, known as G4 EA H1N1, has been common on China’s pig farms since 2016, and spreads to humans. So far, the human infections do not lead to disease, but scientists warn that this could change suddenly.
“G4 viruses have all the essential hallmarks of a candidate pandemic virus,” the study said, and recommends that controlling the spread in pigs “should be urgently implemented”.
But, with over 400 million pigs in China alone, critics of animal farming argue that the industry is untenable, with this latest strain highlighting the continued threats posed by the industry to human health.
Responding to the study’s findings, Prof James Woods, Head of Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, said “The work comes as a salutary reminder that we are constantly at risk of new emergence of zoonotic pathogens and that farmed animals, with which humans have greater contact than with wildlife, may act as the source for important pandemic viruses”.
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