Can Pigs 'catch' Avian Influenza? Defra Response, UK

Main Category: Bird Flu / Avian Flu
Also Included In: Veterinary
Article Date: 04 Mar 2006 - 3:00 PDT

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The risk of a pig catching avian influenza is very low. Because we are aware of the possibility we can look for it happening and deal with it if it does.

It is more likely to happen on premises where there is already infection in poultry.

We know that during the outbreak of AI in 2003 (H7N7) in the Netherlands, seropositive pigs were found on premises where birds had disease.

This means that the pigs on those premises, exposed to presumably large amounts of infected bird faeces, developed antibodies to AI.

In one case the pigs had been fed broken eggs from infected flocks. However the Dutch found no evidence of clinical disease in those pigs and no evidence of pig to pig transmission.

No AI virus was isolated from the pigs, so at the time they were sampled they were not infectious.

Pigs did not appear to play any part in the spread of disease in the Netherlands. The Dutch, sensibly, did not slaughter the pigs.

There are reports of the H5N1 AvI infections in pigs in China and Indonesia. However these infections, like the Dutch cases do not appear to be significant in the maintenance and spread of disease.

http://www.defra.gov.uk

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