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Sign Up. Edit Profile. Subscribe Now. Your Subscription Plan Cancel Subscription. Home India News Entertainment. HT Insight. My Account. Sign in. Sign out. In Europe's intense pork production system, pigs live to be just six months old before they are killed.
That's not yet old enough to fight off most influenza viruses, so "you have a lot of highly susceptible pigs", says Beer. More than million a year , in fact. But Europe has advantages that make it less prone to human disease than some parts of the world.
It's a wealthy continent with good healthcare systems in many of its countries, it's home to some of the world's leading scientists, and it generally has a temperate climate. Traditionally, humans developed farming systems suitable for our environments. But that has changed. With the surge in population has come a surge in demand for protein sources.
Europe is trying to produce more pork, faster than ever, and that demand is creating new diseases. He says there's a connection between the way Europe is producing protein and the viruses they're seeing. Now we have holdings with and 20, sows. It's a gross increase in the farm size.
This is something that changes the epidemiology of the influenza viruses," he says. Twenty years ago, if a new virus cropped up in a small pig farm it would probably have dissipated rapidly, without many hosts to infect.
Not any more, according to Harder. An influenza virus, once introduced, is perpetuated constantly. You will find it over years, all year round," he says. With their intense and increasing farming of pigs, humans are helping to change the way influenza viruses operate and keep them active for longer.
The good news is that, if you're fit and healthy, catching H1N1 now will likely result in mild flu symptoms that pass in a couple of weeks. The bad news is that influenza viruses can jump between species and mix and mingle with other influenza strands. It's these new concoctions that scientists worry about: they have the ability to cause the significant health issues, death and worldwide disruption that we're seeing with Covid Researchers at the Friedrich Loeffler Institute regularly take samples from pigs around Europe to test for influenza Credit: Friedrich Loeffler Institute.
In fact, she says, the biggest reason for having so many strains of flu among European pigs is that humans infect pigs with our own seasonal flu each year.
This is why pig farmers are advised to get their annual flu shot. But this is not just an issue affecting European pigs — across the globe, humans and pigs are sharing and mixing viruses.
With hundreds of thousands of hosts to choose from, these viruses can jump and adapt all the time. This rapidly-changing nature of the influenza viruses makes the work of people like Beer, Harder and Lewis incredibly complicated; they're working with a constantly moving target. Not only do pigs blend up viruses from other species like humans and birds, they mix and mingle the viruses from one another. Pigs in Europe have different strains of influenza than pigs in Asia, for example, and when these two breeds meet they can infect one another to create new diseases.
In , it is believed long-distance trade of pigs between Mexico, the US and Europe allowed a new strain of influenza to form , infecting young people in the region who didn't have antibodies before rapidly spreading across the globe.
Within the European continent, pigs are not moved around a lot. But in North America, pigs are moved regularly: they might be born in North Carolina, and killed in an abattoir in the Midwest because it's near the cereal farm they feed the pigs on.
Watch our video below to learn about how human activity is increasing the risk of pandemics in the future. China is another example. The country regularly imports pigs from other parts of the world for breeding or to repopulate pig stocks that have been wiped out by disease. In doing so, they could be importing new viruses their pigs have not yet encountered, viruses that can harm humans.
This is particularly concerning when you learn that record numbers of pigs globally are currently being killed by a disease called African Swine Fever ASF. He believes the boar transported the disease here. It's Gleich's job to try to stop ASF spiralling out of hand. High Blood Pressure.
Table of Contents. What is H1N1 influenza? Symptoms of H1N1 influenza. Common symptoms include: fever sore throat cough muscle aches headache chills fatigue runny or stuffy nose vomiting diarrhea These symptoms are similar to those with any viral infection. Babies and children may have different symptoms. Trouble breathing. Fever combined with a rash. Confusion or impatience.
Trouble waking up. Not drinking enough fluids. Flu-like symptoms that go away and then return with a fever and cough. Call your doctor right away if your baby or child has any of these symptoms.
What causes H1N1 influenza? How is H1N1 influenza diagnosed? Can H1N1 influenza be prevented or avoided? You can prevent getting and spreading H1N1 by practicing good care.
Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Put used tissues in the trash. Wash your hands often with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth. Avoid people who are sick. If you get sick, stay home from work or school.
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