Oregon Pig with H5N1 Pt 1
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. The Swine Health Information Center says a case of bird flu has been detected for the first time in a pig from an Oregon Farm.
Executive Director Dr. Megan Niederwerder says it was a pig co-housed with poultry, sheep, and goats in a small backyard farm …
NIEDERWERDER … “These animals were housed together, shared water sources, shared housing, and shared equipment. And the detection in one of the five pigs that lived on the operation occurred a few days after the poultry was depopulated due to the detection of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza."
Niederwerder says this first case of H5N1 is important because the pig was living with infected birds …
NIEDERWERDER … “These pigs were housed in very close proximity with these birds that were affected by H5N1 with a high mortality rate."
Any time a virus is detected in a new species, Niederwerder says it's important to understand the risk to commercial animals …
NIEDERWERDER … “We can no longer think about the risk to pigs being through other swine farms or feral swine. We have to think about that there are risks to our big population through co-housing with birds or even with dairy cattle or to operational connections of farms."
Listen tomorrow for more on the H5N1 detected in an Oregon pig.
