By Margie Mason
The Associated Press via The Virginian-Pilot
MEXICO CITY — Now that the swine flu virus has passed from a farm worker to pigs, could it jump back to people? The question is important, because crossing species again could make it more deadly.
The never-before-seen virus was created when genes from pig, bird and human viruses mixed together inside a pig. Experts fear the virus that has gone from humans back into pigs in at least one case could mutate further before crossing back into humans again. But no one can predict what will happen.
“Could it gain virulence? Yes,” Juan Lubroth, an animal health expert at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, said Sunday. “It could also become milder. It could go in both directions.”
Canadian officials announced Saturday that the virus had infected about 200 pigs on a farm — the first evidence that it had jumped to another species. It was linked to a farm worker who recently returned from Mexico. The farm worker has recovered, and the mildly infected pigs have been quarantined.
Agriculture officials believe the worker may have sneezed or coughed near the pigs, possibly in a barn. About 10 percent of the herd experienced loss of appetite and fever, but all are recovering.
Experts say pork — even from infected pigs — is safe to eat.
Lubroth stressed that sick people should avoid contact with swine, but said healthy farm workers don’t need to take any extra precautions because the chance of catching the flu from a pig is small.
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