The Editors of Effect Measure are senior public health scientists and practitioners. Paul Revere was a member of the first local Board of Health in the United States (Boston, 1799). The Editors sign their posts "Revere" to recognize the public service of a professional forerunner better known for other things.
...we started seeing pigs infected with human pandemic swine flu, both in the lab and in pig herds. It's likely the pigs got it from us, although which direction things went in isn't completely clear. But originally the virus made the jump from pigs to humans, probably sometime in late 2008 or early 2009, and now it's likely moving back and forth. Finding the human virus in pig herds in Canada, the US, Norway, Argentina and Northern Ireland, the current official line from the ag industry is, "No surprise. Nothing to see. Move right along."
...industrial pork production packs large numbers of animals together in unsanitary and highly stressful conditions, the perfect incubator for a more virulent virus. In this setting there is a selective advantage to produce more numerous and perhaps more severe symptoms because sick animals can transmit the virus easily, even if they sicken and die. So the establishment of this new ecological niche for the virus in animals in contact with humans and consumers is a concern.
At the moment the virus isn't even making the pigs sick, so it is most likely H1N1 pigs are moving into the food chain. If you cook the pork you will kill (more accurately, inactivate) the virus. But the pork on the dinner plate isn't the only consumer or health concern. Infected and uncooked pork and even infected live pigs routinely come in contact with people in the process of husbandry, slaughter, butchering, packaging and food preparation. While it is most likely true you can't get swine flu from eating pork, there are many other possible modes of transmitting infection from infected swine.
It sounds like vets are not prepared for this development. Sick pet owners bringing in a sick pet, can
infect the staff. I notice that my vet's staff do not even wear gloves when handling sick pets so it
would be a stretch to imagine them wearing masks.
The PCR was negative but the patient is seropositive. In human cases, the PCR tests are
not that reliable either although slightly better than the human rapid flu tests.
Read the full story for more details.
...like the cat diagnosed with H1N1 last week in Iowa, the most recent case involves a 13-year-old domestic shorthair spayed female that presented with breathing problems, Dr. Carl Prior, owner of Park City Animal Hospital, tells DVM Newsmagazine. Prior and his associate, Dr. Angela West, treated the cat, which the owner described as breathing with its mouth open.
He and West hadn't really considered H1N1 until the story of the Iowa cat broke later that day, and they realized at least one of the owners had a confirmed case. Staff members had mentioned they were upset the owner had come into the clinic at all, since she said she had been confirmed to have H1N1. Another member of the household was believed to have H1N1, but that case was not confirmed, Prior says.
A test from Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine's diagnostic laboratory, and it came back seropositive, he says. So Iowa sent more samples, including a PCR test, which came back negative. Prior says officials at the school were surprised at the negative reading, but told him their cat had tested the same way.
Perhaps the virus isn't shed for very long, Prior suggests, adding that a follow-up blood test at Iowa again confirmed a positive H1N1 diagnosis.
this is probably occurring elsewhere but is not being monitored the way it is in the states
reporting these cases.
today we get this report from the dmv magazine, describing a 3rd cat with the virus.
h1n1-infected cat dies in oregon
nov 18, 2009
dvm newsmagazine
lebanon, ore. -- a cat testing positive for pandemic h1n1 influenza died, according to the oregon veterinary medical association.
a week after a family member in the oregon household exhibited influenza-like symptoms, one of the four cats in the household showed signs of labored breathing.
This location is bad news. All flu news out of Indonesia is usually bad news.
Epidemiological comments
Outbreak investigation has been conducted by Disease Investigation Center, Region II, Bukittinggi. 180 nasal swabs and serum samples were collected in pigs in the breeder, weaner and farrow/finishing units. 33 samples were positive for influenza A and divided on 11 pool samples, which were sent to the Indonesian Research Center for Veterinary Sciences and to the Australian Animal Health Laboratory for advanced tests. 6 samples were positive for pandemic influenza A/H1N1. The Ministry of Agriculture officially declared on 23 November 2009 that an outbreak of pandemic influenza A/H1N1 occurs in pigs.
A little over 2-weeks ago we saw a video report from CCTV (China Central Television) news that voiced concerns over the H1N1 virus species jumping to pigs, cats, and according to that report . . . even dogs (see China Worries Over Species Jumping H1N1).
Dogs are not normally thought of as able to contract `human flu' - although if you blog about influenza long enough, you learn not to discount something simply because its never been seen before . . .
Cats, after all, we were not thought likely to be susceptible to the novel H1N1 virus either . . . until, that is, reports of infected cats began to come in a little over a month ago.
This is the first that I am hearing about this cheetah in California though it is not surprising. Influenza has been seen before in tigers that were fed bird flu infected poultry in a zoo in Thailand. All 23 died because bird flu unlike swine flu, is a very virulent virus.
The pandemic H1N1 flu virus was confirmed in a flock of breeder turkeys in Virginia -- the first U.S. case involving turkeys, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Monday.
The virus also has been found in hogs, three house cats, pet ferrets and a cheetah in California. USDA said infections of turkeys have been reported in Canada and Chile.
"This is the first detection of 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza in turkeys in the United States," said a USDA spokesperson.
The animals were diagnosed in Beijing and, while it is possible for pets to transfer viruses to their owners, scientists said there is no evidence to suggest pets are already spreading the illness.
"If animals can get infected from humans, then the reverse is also true," said Feng Zijian, director of emergency response for the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
He explained that so far, across the world, the virus has only been passed from humans to pets.
However, if the virus spreads among dogs, it could potentially be passed on when the animal sneezes or through its waste.
The Editors of Effect Measure are senior public health scientists and practitioners. Paul Revere was a member of the first local Board of Health in the United States (Boston, 1799). The Editors sign their posts "Revere" to recognize the public service of a professional forerunner better known for other things.
What strikes us about this is not the danger to dogs specifically but the amazing promiscuity this virus is showing. We have always thought of influenza virus subtype strains to be relatively host species specific, although exceptions do exist. Humans occasionally get the devasting (to us) H5N1 bird flu, which can also infect cats, ferrets and a few other animals, but all rarely. This virus doesn't seem to care if you are a human, pig, turkey, dog, cat, ferret or who knows what else. Maybe that's too strong, because while all those infections have been reported we still don't know how easy it is to transmit. But nothing so far suggests it's extremely rare. On the contrary, the evidence suggests if we start looking for infections in other species we will start to find them.
I don't see why we should be thinking only of mammals and birds. Could the influenza virus also infect insects or reptiles or amphibians? (NB: a new vaccine production method in caterpillar cells doesn't use the flu virus but an insect virus with the gene for the flu HA protein spliced into it; our post here). Maybe there's a good biological barrier to that but if there is, I don't know what it is and I don't think we've done much looking outside of birds, humans and pigs.
The species promiscuity of this virus raises still another issue. Influenza viruses not only have species preferences but tissue preferences (called tropisms). Rabies virus infects nervous tissue but not kidneys while flu mainly (although not exclusively) likes cells in the respiratory tract. But if this virus is so indifferent to what species it is infecting, might it not also develop a wider palette of tissue tropisms? Nothing we see in the genetic sequences predicts the striking host non-specificity or what's allowing it and we are still pretty vague on the distribution of viral receptors in different body tissues, assuming we even know how to characterize those receptors (the conventional story of the 2,3 versus 2,6 sialic acid linkages seems now to be much more complicated; see our posts here and here for more about this).
Turkeys in the Canadian province of Ontario have become infected with the H1N1 flu virus, but no birds or eggs from the farm entered the food supply, provincial government officials said on Tuesday.
The infection poses minimal risk to human health, Dr. Arlene King, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, said in a news conference in Toronto.
However, she noted the discovery highlights the need for those who work with farm animals to be vaccinated for both seasonal flu and the pandemic H1N1 flu strain.
Who knew that we were passing this much flu to our animal companions and farm animals? Maybe this has been happening all along with the seasonal flu as well, and we just never noticed.
Finland has confirmed the country's first known human-to-pig transmission of A/H1N1 influenza, said Finnish Food Safety Authority and Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare in a statement on Monday.
According to the agencies, samples taken from some pigs of a pig farm in Southern Pohjanmaa region, west in the country tested positive for the A/H1N1 flu viruses.
Interesting that they casually mention an outbreak that occurred earlier in Northern Ireland. Did we know about that? Probably not. Defra says it is "not a notifiable disease" so who knew? This virus must be in just about every swine in the world by now. Oh, the opportunities for a mutation to occur abound...Why don't they vaccinate?
Routine scanning surveillance has confirmed that the strain of the virus found is virtually identical to strains currently circulating in humans.
This is the sixth case of pandemic H1N1 2009 influenza virus found in pigs in the UK, and follows cases earlier this year in Northern Ireland.
“It is not uncommon for pigs to be affected by influenza. Influenza in pigs is not a notifiable disease,” a Department spokesperson said.
Two cats from different households in Colorado have tested positive for H1N1, according to Colorado State University's Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. The felines are expected to recover, but their cases serve as a reminder to pet owners to seek veterinary attention for companion animals that appear to be ill, said a CSU statement.
The cats in these two cases were diagnosed with lower respiratory tract infections by Colorado veterinarians. Both cats are currently ill and have been ill for multiple weeks, with one illness beginning on Oct. 2 and the other beginning in early November. Antibiotics do not treat H1N1, but both cats received antibiotics as a precaution against secondary bacterial infections. Neither cat had symptoms that responded to antibiotics.
"We expect that both cats will recover, but these cases serve as a reminder to pet owners to seek veterinary attention as soon as possible if their pet seems ill. This flu has also been identified in ferrets, exotic cats and birds in the United States, so any companion animal that appears to have the flu should get immediate attention," Kristy Pabilonia, a veterinarian and expert on H1N1 testing in animals at CSU, said in the statement released by CSU. "We are very interested in understanding more about H1N1 in cats and other pets and providing tests to veterinarians who suspect H1N1 in companion animals."
indigo girl
5,173 Posts
Utah cat tests positive for H1N1 flu
http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/dvm/Veterinary+news/Utah-cat-tests-positive-for-H1N1-flu/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/642134?contextCategoryId=378
It sounds like vets are not prepared for this development. Sick pet owners bringing in a sick pet, can
infect the staff. I notice that my vet's staff do not even wear gloves when handling sick pets so it
would be a stretch to imagine them wearing masks.
The PCR was negative but the patient is seropositive. In human cases, the PCR tests are
not that reliable either although slightly better than the human rapid flu tests.
Read the full story for more details.
(hat tip flutrackers/Dutchy)