July 30, 2009
Canada confirms one case of AH1N1 in swine herd, contained
An isolated case of the pandemic strain of AH1N1 flu virus 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 by the Quebec agriculture, food and fisheries ministry (MAPAQ), stated that the strain was identified on July 24, at the labs of the National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
MAPAQ emphasised earlier 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 from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) that it will not quarantine hog herds found to carry AH1N1. Earlier, AH1N1 was discovered in pig herds in Alberta, Canada and Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.
The ministry's pathologist Alain Laperle said that the first clinical signs of AH1N1 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.
