# 751
This is an excellent interview with two well known scientists on the threat from emerging zoonotic diseases, particularly that of swine.
I've reformated the first paragraph for easier web reading. Please follow the link to read the entire interview.
Sick Pigs
First came the bird flu. Now China’s pigs are succumbing to a violent infection. Is a human disease next?
Joe Tan / Reuters
A mysterious disease that is killing pigs in Guangdong province in southern China has health officials worried
By Barrett Sheridan
Newsweek
May 10, 2007 - In an outbreak reminiscent of the early stages of SARS and bird flu, pigs are growing sick and dying across China’s southeastern Guangdong province. Roughly 3,000 pigs have been infected on hundreds of family farms and about 300 have died.
Early reports from Chinese scientists attribute the outbreak to porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome (PRRS), which first appeared 18 years ago and was originally called Mystery Swine Disease. But certain symptoms of the current outbreak, including massive hemorrhaging, are not consistent with PRRS, and might indicate that the disease—most likely caused by a virus—has mutated.
The outbreak has renewed fears that a viral pandemic is in the making in southern China. Richard Webby, an influenza researcher at St. Jude Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., and Marie Gramer, a veterinarian and expert on swine influenza at the University of Minnesota, spoke by phone with NEWSWEEK’s Barrett Sheridan on the risks of the recent outbreak, and China’s response. Excerpts:
