Photo Credit (Wikipedia)
# 6463
A week after we learned of a small cluster of H3N2v infections linked to a county fair swine exhibit earlier this month (see MMWR On The H3N2v Outbreak In LaPorte, Indiana), local media tonight is reporting on the closure of swine barn at the Monroe County Fair in Bloomington, Indiana due to flu-like symptoms in some of the pigs.
This report comes from the ABC-TV affiliate WRTV in Indianapolis.
Fair's Swine Barn Closed Amid Flu Concerns
Officials: Some Pigs Show Flu-Like Symptoms
UPDATED: 9:13 pm EDT July 31, 2012
The swine barn at the Monroe County Fair in Bloomington closed Tuesday due to threats of swine flu, officials said.
“The Monroe County Fair Board and the Purdue Cooperative Extension Service of Monroe County are aware of a potential swine health issue," a Monroe County Fair official said. "We have been in contact with… the Monroe County Health Department and… the Indiana State Veterinary Board of Animal Health.”
This report goes on to state that several people who were in contact with these pigs have shown flu-like symptoms and are being tested for influenza A.
The Monroe County Fair opened on July 28th and is scheduled to run through August 4th.
Right now, there is no confirmation on whether any of these pigs, or people, are infected with the H3N2v virus. Test results should be available in a few days.
I’ve checked the Monroe County Health Department website, but have not yet been able to locate an official statement.
For more on the H3N2v virus, you may wish to revisit some of these older blogs.
Eurosurveillance: Cross Reactive Antibodies to H3N2v In Norway
And for more background on variant flu viruses, you may wish to visit the following CDC webpage:
Key Facts about Human Infections with Variant Viruses (Swine Origin Influenza Viruses in Humans)
Right now we obviously only have a barebones report. Hopefully we’ll have more details on this situation tomorrow.
