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A leading health expert said the swine flu scare was a "false pandemic" led by drug companies that stood to make billions from vaccines, The Sun reported Monday.
JOURNAL OF VIROLOGY, May 2009, Vol. 83, No. 9
p. 4287–4296
Experimental Infection of Pigs with the Human 1918 Pandemic
Influenza Virus
Received 19 November 2008
The early pathological changes and virus titers in both the
1918/rec and 1930/rec virus-infected pigs were considered con-
sistent with typical swine influenza virus infections. No differ-
ences were observed between animals inoculated intratrache-
ally (somewhat simulating aerosol inoculation by delivery of
the virus into the lower respiratory tract) or intranasally with
the 1918/rec virus; for example, the virus titers recovered from
BALFs were within the same range for both inoculation
routes. Interestingly, human volunteers experimentally inocu-
lated by aerosol developed disease resembling natural influ-
enza virus infections while the ones inoculated via nasal drops
did not (36).
The relatively rapid antibody response (HI titers of 128 at 7
dpi) in the 1918/rec virus-infected animals, however, was a
somewhat surprising finding as this is not usually reported for
swine influenza virus. The more widespread and atypical le-
sions observed in lung of the 1918/rec virus-infected animals at
later times postinfection, such as perivascular hemorrhages
along with presence of blood in the airways and the gross
lesions in the diaphragmatic lobes, were not expected and may
be related to differences in immune response to the 1918/rec
versus the 1930/rec virus. However, no conclusions were drawn
based on these observations since only three animals were kept
past 7 dpi, and we were not able to determine the factors
involved in the pathological changes beyond 7 dpi in the 1918/
rec virus-infected pigs. Interestingly, the original reports com-
mented on the presence of pulmonary lesions in pigs slaugh-
tered three weeks or more after clinical recovery from the hog
flu (27).
Overall, the clinical disease and virus replication observed in
piglets infected with the 1918/rec influenza virus were consis-
tent with a typical swine influenza virus infection (12, 22, 23)
and not significantly different from the infection with the 1930/
rec virus, representing classical swine H1N1 viruses. The clin-
ical signs observed in our 1930/rec virus-infected pigs corre-
sponded with the description of the disease given by Shope for
pigs inoculated with the 1930 filtered samples of swine influ-
enza virus (27, 28). In his experimental inoculations, the respi-
ratory disease was mild compared to the field infections in
swine. Shope concluded that coinfection with Haemophilus
influenzae suis was necessary to induce severe disease in swine
(18, 27, 28). It is generally accepted that the clinical outcome of
experimental and field infections with influenza virus in swine
can differ as additional factors (e.g., stress or crowding) and
agents (e.g., mycoplasma, respiratory bacteria, or other vi-
ruses) are usually involved in the field, worsening the disease
signs caused by the virus.
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