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First case of bird flu detected in pig, USDA reports in long-feared development

First case of bird flu detected in pig, USDA reports in long-feared development

Bird flu was confirmed in a pig on a backyard farm in Oregon, the first detection of the virus in swine in the country, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday.

Pigs represent a particular concern for the spread of bird flu because they can become co-infected with bird and human viruses, which could swap genes to form a new, more dangerous virus that can more easily infect humans.

Iowa is the nation's largest producer of both pork and eggs. Poultry farms in the state have destroyed millions of infected birds to prevent the spread of the disease, and Iowa also has seen the virus infect dairy cattle. But the USDA said there is no risk to the nation's pork supply from the Oregon case and that the risk to the public from the avian flu, though it is deadly for birds. remains low.

The National Pork Producers Council said farmers have adopted rigorous biosecurity practices and the industry has worked alongside the USDA since 2009 to carry out a swine influenza surveillance program to identify viruses circulating in herds and to "proactively detect reassortment viruses that could impact public health."

Pigs were the source of the H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009-2010, and have been implicated as the source of others, said Richard Webby, a St. Jude Children's Research Hospital virologist who studies flu in animals and birds for the World Health Organization.

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