MSNBC: The Threat From China's Pigs

[Guest guest]

The Threat From China's Pigs

First came the bird flu. Now China's pigs are

succumbing to a violent infection. Is a human

disease next?

WEB EXCLUSIVE

By Barrett Sheridan

Newsweek

Updated: 1:01 p.m. PT 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.

Is there a danger of a pig epidemic such as this one jumping species?

Webby: There are a number of reports in the

literature-and obviously many more not in the

literature-giving examples of influenza viruses

from pigs that have gone to humans and also the

other way, influenza viruses from humans that

have gone to pigs. Generally when it occurs,

though, it's only a few cases. It never really

spreads.

Gramer: Yes, that's a possibility with any

disease in any animal. And the more animals you

have dying, and the more contact you have with

those animals, which increases the chance of it

infecting the human taking care of those animals.

Is that the case in China? Do they have closer contact with their animals?

Gramer: In China, [pigs] are very

labor-intensive. [The Chinese] are hands-on with

their pigs quite a bit. And as a source of food,

everybody would have a pig and two chickens on

their farms. From what I've seen and what's been

reported by other people over there, there's a

lot more intimate contact with your farm animals

than there would be in the United States. And

there's more swine in total.

What's the impact of poverty on a situation like

this? Does that increase the risks?

Gramer: We live in a country where we can afford,

if a pig is sick or a pig dies, to not eat that

pig. In China, if your pig died and your family

was still hungry, you'd eat the dead pig, even

though it might have been sick when it died. In

[developed countries] we don't have a lot of

food-borne diseases because we have an excellent

safety inspection system and no sick animals can

be consumed for food. That's a luxury we have

that a lot of countries don't have.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18597469/site/newsweek/

 

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