If pigs get bird flu, we could be in for a real nightmare – Deccan Herald

Flu likes to bind to a sugar on the surface of cells, and the reason bird influenzas usually doesnt spread among humans is that our sugars are very different, explained Richard Webby, a specialist in influenza at St. Judes Childrens Research Hospital in Memphis.

The cells in a pigs respiratory tract have both kinds of sugars, so both kinds of virus can get in and swap pieces. The infamous 1918 influenza virus, thought to have originated from a bird flu, was transmitted from humans to pigs in the 1920s, where it continued to evolve. It re-emerged in humans in 1957, 1968 and 2009. In recent years, as bird flu surged through domestic flocks, its gained the power to infect dozens of mammal species, including minks, racoons, foxes, seals and porpoises. We really dont want pigs to be next.

Yet the wider the cow infections spread, the more chances the virus has to jump to pigs. They might get infected through contaminated equipment, or if milk from infected cows gets into their feed. Although pasteurization kills the virus in commercial milk, the raw milk remains highly infectious its the lead suspect in deaths of several farm cats infected with H5N1.

Whats a bit unclear to me is exactly whats happening to all this contaminated milk, said Webby. Could some be getting dumped, raw, where other animals could ingest it?

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If pigs get bird flu, we could be in for a real nightmare - Deccan Herald