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Researchers in Thailand have infected baby piglets with the new A/H1N1 virus in a attempt to document its symptoms and pathogenicity in swine.
Infected pigs showed symptoms of coughing, sneezing, nasal discharge and conjunctivitis within days of being infected with the new A(H1N1) virus, but none of the pigs died.
The good news is that the virus doesn’t appear to roam beyond the respiratory tract in pigs. Scientists did not detect the virus in blood or tissue samples.
The bad news is that the symptoms don’t appear to be substantially different from any of the other common influenza A virus infections in swine, making identification of herds infected with this virus more difficult.
This from AFP.
May 12, 2009
H1N1 FLU OUTBREAK
BANGKOK - THAI scientists who infected newborn pigs with the swine flu virus have found they developed symptoms similar to those found in humans, a researcher said on Tuesday.
Researchers at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University found the piglets showed symptoms of coughing, sneezing, nasal discharge and conjunctivitis within four days of being infected with the A(H1N1) virus.
But none of the 22-day-old animals died, said Roongroje Thanawongnuwech, who led the research.
'The A(H1N1) didn't kill any pigs, they had the clinical side of fever and some... flu symptoms,' Roongroje told AFP, adding that the pigs also developed large lung legions. It also shows that the virus is contained only in the respiratory tract, we don't see it anywhere else in the blood or tissue,' Dr Roongroje said.
He said the research was also useful in learning more about the development of the new form of the virus.
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