On May 2, a pig farm in Alberta, Canada, has made international news when authorities revealed that the animals perform this novel H1N1 virus causing the swine flu outbreak in humans, the first and still the only known infected pigs. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said it was "highly probable" that a Canadian who had recently traveled to Mexico and returned with symptoms similar to the flu had infected pigs. At press conferences on May 2 and May 7, Canadian officials explained that because the farmer did not buy pigs from other farms, the "entrepreneur" who had gone to Mexico was the source most likely the virus. This scenario excluded the possibility that the pigs were infected before humans and may have held clues to the origin of the epidemic.
It is found that the contractor, Adrian Blaak, was a carpenter who had worked on the farm for one day, April 14, exchanging vents on a pigsty. Although Blaak felt sick that day, he had minimal direct contact with pigs. The farmer first noticed the disease in its swine herd on April 24. Officials suspected that quickly Blaak was the source of infection of pigs, but his symptoms had resolved by then how it is usually difficult to find the virus. nasopharyngeal swabs taken from him, as expected, were negative for the H1N1 novel. At a May 7 press conference Frank Plummer, who heads the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, a branch of the Agency of Public Health of Canada (PHAC) said they would test the blood samples Blaak for antibodies to the new H1N1 virus, which could confirm that he was infected. Plummer also discussed other workers at the farm who had flu-like symptoms and have been tested for signs of infection with swine flu.
Science Insider recently asked Plummer email results carpenter sera tests. Plummer did not respond, but his spokesman on June 3 wrote that PHAC was "unable to answer questions on individual cases." The spokesman suggested that the province of Alberta could have more information, but the head doctor, he also cited reasons of confidentiality not to discuss the case.
Science Insider contacted the carpenter Adrian Blaak, who from the beginning publicly questioned the assertion that he even had the H1N1 virus. Although it recognizes Blaak was not feeling well the day he worked on the farm, he said Science Insider, "I still do not think I infected pigs." Blaak was surprised that officials had yet to inform him on the results of his blood tests, and he intended to ask the .
Veterinarian Jim Clark, spokesman for the CFIA on the novel H1N1 infection in Alberta pigs, discussed the case with Science Insider June 9 Clark revealed that the CFIA has not received information from PHAC on blood tests Blaak and others on the farm who had flu-like symptoms. Although the CFIA continues to believe a human being infected pigs, the agency downgraded the role of Blaak status "highly probable", Clark revealed. He also said he knew of no new confirmed human cases of H1N1 around the farm in Alberta fairly remote.
This is a condensed transcript of the interview, edited for clarity.
Q: I wanted to follow up with questions about further testing sera from the contractor and other farm to see if there is no evidence that they have been infected with the new H1N1 virus. We discussed earlier, and Frank Plummer and others also spoke at the press conference on 7 May, after we talked. Are there results of testing these sera?
Jim Clark: I do not know. The authorities of the Manitoba Public Health take this information, and they have not made that available to the CFIA.
Q: Really? It's been over a month.
J.C. :. I'm sure they have the results, as I have suggested, but it was not made available to anyone outside the community of human health.
Q: Why are you sure that they have the results?
J.C.. Well, positive or negative, they would have the results of this point in time.
Q: Is it frustrating that you do not have these results?
J.C. :. It reflects a problem sharing information that has been demonstrated previously. The concern before it was with those who would be responsible for maintaining animal health, sharing their findings with the public health community. I think we have the opposite situation in this particular case, where the public health authorities may have information that may be useful and help the animal health community by making some determination of how the disease increased or the epidemiology of the disease. the sharing of information from becoming something of concern on an ongoing basis in most investigations of outbreaks of disease, and it is in the private lives of persons concerned. I think we can address these concerns, it is just not being done at this point in time.
Q: There is a strange ride privacy concern angle. I spoke with Adrian Blaak, who is the carpenter suspected of infecting pigs. It is very surprising to him that he was not given the test results.
J.C. :. Ah. I did not know either.
Q: Do you have different thoughts on the original assertion that it was "highly probable" that the worker who went to Mexico infected pigs?
J.C.. is an excellent question. Given what we know both our survey of likely opportunities for the virus to be introduced to this particular herd, we came to the conclusion that, as he did not appear to be animal possibility of introducing virus in pigs, we conclude that the most reasonable source must have been a person. If the person was a carpenter or another person who has had the opportunity to interact with pigs, which is an issue at this point in time. And until we get better information about what was happening in the individuals on the human side who had the opportunity to interact with pigs, we're not really going to be able to say more definitely.
We are reasonably confident that there is no possibility of this virus have been introduced from another herd of pigs.
Q: It seems that your thoughts might have changed, it may be another human that has infected pigs.
JC: I think we need to back off a little and say as we continue to think that it was a human introduction of the pig population, we are not entirely as definitive fact whether it was this person who went to Mexico and returned as we were before now.
Q: Science Express last month published a paper co-authored by 59 researchers said it might have been another species that intermediate, suggesting that the virus may have increased from pigs to another species, and to humans. Have you looked at other species that could have been the vector?
J.C.. No. When we look at other species, the species you choose you?
Q: I could list a few.
J.C.. Ok Appoints..
Q: Equine.
J.C.. We see no evidence in the equine population or any other species that would indicate that the virus has entered this particular species and spread. I guess in my own thinking, since we seem to have a relatively human adapted virus at this point in time, my most likely thinking is that we have a person that somehow has been exposed to swine viruses that had both Eurasian and north American lines, and that probably occurred recombinant activity in a human being rather than another species of animal.
Q: What is monitoring CFIA did he do for swine flu before the epidemic, and has it changed?
JC. CFIA did not continue monitoring for swine flu or influenza A viruses other than avian flu virus that have been H5 and H7. These particular subtypes in avian flus represent the possibility of low pathogenicity change at the top and obviously have a quite significant impact on both animal health and human health situation H5N1, Asian strain, being the virus concern.
Influenza A virus in pig community were roughly determined to be omnipresent, production limiting diseases that have been recognized to be there on an ongoing basis, and had some possibility of transmission from pigs to people and people with plague, well documented in the literature, and do not represent a particular threat either swine or human communities.
Q: After the epidemic, are there any monitoring for novel H1N1 had?
J.C. :. We will certainly approach it in the same position as the United States and Mexico. We want to be aware of any situation where there was a person who has been diagnosed with the H1N1 novel and the opportunity for association with a herd of pigs so we can go and investigate to determine if there has been a transmission. And we are certainly looking for any novel isolates that can come out of the passive surveillance system. So if we have a province or a university laboratory looking influenza A virus from a pig herd, and they do not recognize it as one of the typical strains from North America that was previously circulated, we are looking for isolates to be sent to our National Centre for Foreign animal disease in Winnipeg for characterization. But we will not in active surveillance in swine population research this particular virus, unless there is a direct association with an infected pig or infected person.
Q: Are there ongoing investigations at this time due to infected human cases being close to the plague?
J.C. :. No, we have not received any reports from the public health community of people who have been confirmed infected associated with pigs. This was certainly our concern in the initial part of the investigation, and we did ask them to insert questions in their epidemiological investigation that would highlight this special occasion for the association. They did this, and we were not informed of all the circumstances where they have concerns.
Q: Do you know if there are confirmed cases in the vicinity of the pig?
J.C. :. I am not aware of any. Alberta confirmed H1N1 in people, but if they have an association with the pig we had quarantined, I am not aware.
Q: Pig farming is fairly remote, right?
J.C. :. is not in one of the most densely populated areas. Edmonton is the nearest urban area which would have a significant population. Other than that, it is fairly representative of the population density of most Midwest states or our prairie provinces. It is quite dispersed.
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