Argentina workers may have passed AH1N1 to pigs

Workers at an Argentine farm apparently infected pigs with the AH1N1 flu strain, the second case of which humans passed the virus to swine, a government spokesman said.

The Argentine government spokesman said their theory is that the pigs were infected by farm workers who had flu symptoms a week before the pigs started to show symptoms.

He said 800 pigs had tested positive for AH1N1 flu, but that the two workers suspected of passing the virus to the pigs had not gone to a doctor so it is unclear whether or not they had the new flu strain.

The first human-to-pig case occurred in Canada, when a farm worker was suspected of passing the virus to a herd of pigs. Blood testing later cleared him of suspicious but health officials did not rule out the possibility that a human infected the animals.

But the Argentine case has added weight to the theory that pigs can be infected by humans.

The pig farm is located in Buenos Aires province and had been placed under quarantine. AH1N1 flu Health Organisation declared a pandemic last month. The flu virus first appeared in Mexico and the US, but has since spread across the world and killed more than 300 people.