Quebec: contained case of H1N1 in swine herd
One isolated case of the pandemic strain of the novel influenza A virus (H1N1) has been confirmed in a pig herd in Quebec, Canada. The herd has since ‘completely recovered’ and no human case is related to this situation.
A press release, issued in French only by the Quebec agriculture, food and fisheries ministry (MAPAQ), stated that the strain was identified at Friday, July 24, at the labs of the National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
No other cases
MAPAQ emphasised earlier this week that no other case has been reported on any other swine farm in Quebec and no people have caught the virus from the herd, saying ‘there is no human case related to this situation.’ It is not known how the animals caught the virus.©
This week’s announcement follows a statement Friday from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) that it will not quarantine hog herds found to carry H1N1. Earlier, H1N1 was discovered in pig herds in Alberta, Canada and Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.
The ministry announced that it will be extra alert on H1N1 in Quebec from now on.
Pathologist
The ministry’s pathologist Dr Alain Laperle added, in the Quebec farmers’ newspaper La Terre de Chez Nous, that no one in the farmer’s family, nor any of the farm’s workers or visitors, has become ill sickened by the virus.
He also said that the first clinical signs of H1N1 were detected in the herd at the end of June.
Laperle said that while the vector by which the disease came to the farm may never be known. The ‘most probable hypothesis’ is that it came through a human carrier.
Related websites:
Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)
Quebec agriculture, food and fisheries ministry (MAPAQ; in French)
La Terre de Chez Nous
National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease
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