Friday, April 24, 2009

Dirty, Dirty Swine

Another interesting development in the flu department... The swine flu is going around both in Mexico and in a tiny population in California. Now, we've been pummeled with information about the bird flu for the last several years. But last year, Mr. Weston posted something interesting on the Living Youth web site that I had never encountered before. He stated that while the flu originates with birds, it takes pigs to make into something that becomes more human transmissible. I kind of put that on the shelf until I had more time to research that, but this article on MSNBC sort of restated that assertion:

"Scientists keep a close eye on flu viruses that emerge from pigs. The animals are considered particularly susceptible to both avian and human viruses and a likely place where the kind of genetic reassortment can take place that might lead to a new form of pandemic flu, said Dr. John Treanor, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Rochester Medical Center."
I wouldn't call that an outright declaration that the flu came from people eating pigs (which are declared unclean for human consumption by God, if you haven't heard). But it certainly backs up Mr. Weston's earlier assumption. Anyway, it was something I found interesting...