May 13, 2009

Researchers at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University on Tuesday (May 12) reveal that infected newborn pigs with AH1N1 virus have also developed symptoms similar to those found in humans.

The piglets showed symptoms of coughing, sneezing, nasal discharge and conjunctivitis within four days of being infected with the AH1N1 virus.

However, none of the 22-day-old animals died, said Roongroje Thanawongnuwech, who led the research.

Roongroje said the pigs also developed large lung lesions, adding that the virus is contained only in the respiratory tract but cannot be found on blood or tissue.

Roongroje said the research was also useful in learning more about the development of the new form of the virus.

The AH1N1 virus is believed to be a combination of bird and human flu which came together in pigs, forming a sub-strain of H1N1 with a new pattern of genes.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), death toll from the virus passed 50 at the weekend. It has reported over 5000 cases worldwide, most of them involving relatively mild symptoms.

Last month the WHO officially renamed it "influenza A (H1N1)" instead of swine flu after complaints that the name was causing an unjustified clampdown on the pork trade.

Unlike H5N1 bird flu, AH1N1 is not among animal diseases that have to be notified to international authorities. Quite a common illness in pigs, it has simply been treated as a purely farming issue.

The discovery earlier this month of the infection of a pig herd by a human in Canada has added further weight to evidence that the virus could move between humans and animals in either direction.

The WHO, the UN food agency and the World Organization for Animal Health set up an early warning system for animal disease threats in 2006.