Review of influenza A virus in swine worldwide
The fight against influenza A virus in swine and other animal species requires support from governments, vets and the swine industry and extra funding and infrastructure.
This was the outcome of a study that will be published in Zoonoses Public Health, this month. The research has been carried out by varioius scientists at Virus and Prion Research Unit, USDA-ARS, Ames, IA, United States.
The researchers, in a study called ‘Review of Influenza A virus in swine worldwide’, state that pigs and humans have shared influenza A viruses since at least 1918, and many interspecies transmission events have been documented since that time.
They continue to say that despite this interplay, relatively little is known regarding influenza A circulating in swine around the world compared with the avian and human knowledge base.
They write: “This gap in knowledge impedes the understanding of how viruses adapted to swine or man impacts the ecology and evolution of influenza A virus as a whole and the true impact of swine IAV on human health. The pandemic H1N1 that emerged in 2009 underscored the need for greater surveillance and sharing of data on influenza A virus in swine.”
The researchers aim in this paper to review the current state of the virus in pig populations around the world, highlight the collaboration between international organisations and a network of laboratories engaged in human and animal influenza A virus surveillance and research, and emphasise the need to increase information in high-priority regions.
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