# 3341
While there is a lot, admittedly, we don’t know about influenza and pandemics, there is one thing that’s certain.
When you see an article by Helen Branswell of the Canadian Press, it is always worth reading.
Tonight Ms. Branswell breaks the news that the migrant worker who was assumed to have introduced the H1N1 swine flu to a herd of pigs in Alberta has tested negative for swine flu antibodies.
In other words, the virus didn’t come from him.
Which leaves a pretty big mystery.
Follow the link to read the article in its entirety.
Blood tests rule out prime suspect in pig farm swine flu case
By Helen Branswell
TORONTO — Officials have ruled out the prime suspect in the mystery over how a herd of Alberta pigs was infected with the new swine flu virus sweeping the globe.
A spokesperson for Alberta Health and Wellness says blood tests have shown that a carpenter who worked for half a day on the farm before heading home with flu-like illness did not introduce the virus to the herd.
"We've determined it wasn't the carpenter," says spokesperson Howard May.
The workman, Adrian Blaak, declined to be interviewed about the findings. Previously he'd said he did not believe he had infected the pigs, which were raised on a farm near Rocky Mountain House.
Blaak had just returned from a trip to Mexico when he went to do a job at the farm on April 14. At that point the new H1N1 virus was already circulating in parts of the Mexico, but the world was not yet aware a new flu virus was on the move.
The World Health Organization declared Thursday that the new virus has triggered a pandemic, the first in 41 years.
May says provincial health officials are starting to believe they may never find out how the virus made its way into the herd, the only pigs anywhere in the world to have tested positive for the new virus to this point.
"Since serological (blood) tests indicated the carpenter had not had H1N1, someone else must have brought it in, but it is unlikely we will ever be able to pinpoint exactly who," says May.
