Bird flu was first detected in pigs in the USA: what does this mean for people?

Pig contracted bird flu Oregon has expressed concern that the virus could endanger people, but the current risk to the population remains low.

The pig that tested positive lived on a farm in central Oregon where different animals share water and are housed together, according to the USDA. The virus was first discovered in pigs in the United States.

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The farm was quarantined and all five pigs were euthanized so further testing could be carried out. It is not a commercial farm, and U.S. agriculture officials said they are not concerned about the security of the country’s pork supply.

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But the discovery of bird flu in pigs raises concerns that the virus could be a stepping stone to becoming an even greater threat to humans, said Jennifer Nuzzo, a pandemic researcher at Brown University.

Pigs can become infected with several types of influenza, and animals may play a role in the adaptation of avian viruses to humans, she explained. The 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic had swine origins, Nuzzo noted.

The USDA conducted genetic tests on the farm’s poultry and found no mutations that would suggest the virus has an increased ability to spread among humans. This indicates the current risk to the public remains low, officials said.

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A different strain of avian influenza virus has been reported in pigs outside the United States in the past but has not caused a pandemic in humans.

The Oregon pig infection “is noteworthy, but does it change the threat level calculation? No, it doesn’t,” said Troy Sutton, a Penn State researcher who studies influenza viruses in animals. If the virus begins to spread more widely among pigs and human cases occur as a result, “then we will be more concerned.”

So far this year About 40 human cases have been reported – In California, Colorado, Washington, Michigan, Texas and Missouri – mostly mild symptoms were reported, including red eyes. All but one person had contact with infected animals.