First came the bird flu. Now China’s pigs are succumbing to a violent infection. Is a human disease next?
By Barrett Sheridan
Newsweek
Updated: 1:01 p.m. MT May 10, 2007
May 10, 2007 - In an outbreak reminiscent of the early stages of SARS and bird flu, pigs are growing sick and dying across China’s southeastern Guangdong province. Roughly 3,000 pigs have been infected on hundreds of family farms and about 300 have died. Early reports from Chinese scientists attribute the outbreak to porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome (PRRS), which first appeared 18 years ago and was originally called Mystery Swine Disease. But certain symptoms of the current outbreak, including massive hemorrhaging, are not consistent with PRRS, and might indicate that the disease—most likely caused by a virus—has mutated. The outbreak has renewed fears that a viral pandemic is in the making in southern China. Richard Webby, an influenza researcher at St. Jude Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., and Marie Gramer, a veterinarian and expert on swine influenza at the University of Minnesota, spoke by phone with NEWSWEEK’s Barrett Sheridan on the risks of the recent outbreak, and China’s response. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: Is an epidemic in pigs more dangerous to humans than one in, say, birds?
Richard Webby: We think so. We think that if a virus does replicate in pigs it probably is adapted more toward humans.
Is China adequately responding to the outbreak?
Marie Gramer: Although they have a few good laboratories, they don’t have enough of them. They especially don’t have enough of them where the pigs are. They have difficulty in getting timely, accurate diagnoses because of the lack of laboratories, lack of diagnosticians and lack of pathologists. So it doesn’t surprise me that things are undiagnosed.
China has been criticized for being close-lipped during the early stages of the SARS and avian-flu outbreaks. Has that changed?
Gramer: To China’s credit, they are reporting more things to the OIE [the World Organization for Animal Health], which is the World Health Organization for animals, and trying to get things diagnosed, especially in the wake of SARS and bird flu and things like that. Since SARS, I’ve been seeing more reports from every country on what’s going on with undiagnosed outbreaks. I think all countries are doing a little bit better reporting, and China’s certainly trying to maintain a status as good reporter. They’re cooperating.
How much should we be concerned about an outbreak like this one?
Webby: With the standard strains of flu in pigs there’s not much of a concern because these viruses really are endemic [to the pig population] globally. It depends, of course, on what subtype [of influenza]. If it is an H5 [the same strain as bird flu], then yes, that is strange, and yes, that is a concern, and yes, the world needs to know about it yesterday.
How much should we be concerned about an outbreak like this one?
Webby: With the standard strains of flu in pigs there’s not much of a concern because these viruses really are endemic [to the pig population] globally. It depends, of course, on what subtype [of influenza]. If it is an H5 [the same strain as bird flu], then yes, that is strange, and yes, that is a concern, and yes, the world needs to know about it yesterday.
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First came the bird flu. Now China’s pigs are succumbing to a violent infection. Is a human disease next?
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