The H1N1 influenza virus originated from people.
Because we know this virus spreads easily from a person, people with the H1N1 virus should stay home, stay away from other people, and very definitely stay away from the farm to avoid spreading the virus to animals.
Dr. Cate Dewey, Ontario Veterinary College:
It’s a virus, a brand new virus, that’s made up of component parts from a human influenza, a pig influenza and an avian influenza virus.
It was re-assorted or made a new virus in a person.
We know that this virus grows very well in people, makes many people sick, it’s quite a severe illness in people and it spreads very well from one person to another.
What that indicates is this virus attaches well to a lung cell in a person and multiples well in the lung cell of a person.
On the other hand, when that virus got into pig farms it only affected about ten percent of the pigs in the barn meaning that it really doesn’t grow very well in pigs.