News hour
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 18:19
The Ministries of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality take into account that bird flu can spread to pigs. That is why they are taking precautions: they want structural monitoring of the flu viruses circulating in pigs and they want to be able to cull pigs if they are infected with bird flu. That appears from a letter which was sent to the House of Representatives this afternoon.
An important reason is that pigs are a kind of ‘mixing vessel’ for viruses. “Pigs can play a role in the emergence of new pandemic viruses,” explains a RIVM spokesperson. “We saw that in 2009 with the Mexican flu. That virus originated from a swine flu virus.” At the request of the ministries, the RIVM started a trial in 2022 to gain insight into influenza viruses in pigs.
Since then, samples of – mostly sick – pigs have been taken at 90 livestock farms. Being in that all kinds of flu viruses were found, but not the highly contagious variant of bird flu that has been circulating the world for years. The pilot will be extended for six months and the ministries want a “structural implementation of surveillance”.
Ideal host
Professor of farm animal health care Arjan Stegeman from Utrecht University believes that the attention paid to influenza viruses in pigs is positive. “There are many viruses going around there that have been pandemic in humans and are therefore well adapted to our bodies. If a bird flu virus in a pig combines with such an old virus, it makes the transition to humans easier. A pig is an ideal intermediate host.”
Yet Stegeman does not have too high expectations of the monitoring. “I think it is very difficult to detect the first case of bird flu in pigs with this system and it would be very coincidental if such a virus appeared exactly in the Netherlands. However, it is useful to know which viruses are circulating Then you can see whether there are any unexpected types and whether you need to intervene.”
Culling pigs
As far as we know, a bird flu infection has never been found in pigs in the Netherlands, says a spokesperson for LNV. But just in case it rears its head here, there is now a script ready. It states, for example, that if bird flu is detected on a farm with pigs, the infected animal will be killed and examined. If it cannot be ruled out that the virus has spread to other pigs, all pigs must be killed.
Linda Verriet, chairman of the Pig Farming Producers’ Organization, speaks of a hypothetical exercise. “If a disease is notifiable, there are scripts included. These are now being drawn up, but the risk that these are necessary is very small.”
Professor of virology Marion Koopmans of Erasmus MC thinks the script is important. “You don’t know whether you need it and preventive measures all cost money, but if bird flu shows up on a pig farm, you want to be able to do something about it. I think it’s a good thing that we look at what we can do to reduce the chance of a new pandemic virus.”
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#Ministry #preparing #contagious #bird #flu #pigs
