H5N1 bird flu has been detected in a pig in the United States for the first time, U.S. authorities confirmed, raising concern it could increase the risk of infection to people.
Pigs are considered a “mixing vessel” for flu viruses because they can harbor bird and human flu viruses at the same time, increasing the threat of a new hybrid strain that can more easily infect people.
Pigs were the source of the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, Richard Webby, a virologist at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital — which helps the World Health Organization study flu— told Reuters.
U.S. officials sequenced the genome of the virus found in poultry on the farm in Oregon and did not identify any changes to the virus that indicate it’s more transmissible to humans. The risk to the public remains low, they said Wednesday.
