Health
US Spots First H5N1 Bird Flu Case in a Pig, Raising Concern for Humans
- Flu in swine can exchange genes to emerge as human threat
- One of five pigs in backyard Oregon firm confirmed with H5N1
So far this year, 35 humans have contracted the virus, most of whom worked on farms with infected animals.
Photographer: Balint Porneczi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
A pig tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu for the first time in the US, government officials said, a feared development that could help the virus further evolve and put humans at risk.
The infection was confirmed in a pig kept on a backyard farm in Crook County, Oregon, the US Department of Agriculture said Wednesday. US health officials have worried that the virus, already spreading in birds and cattle, would jump into swine.