HEALTH Ebola Reston spreads to pigs

H

H2O

Senior Member
Ebola Reston - the only known strain of Ebola that speards airborne has, until now, only been symtomatic in monkeys and is limited to the Phillipines. It has now crossed over to pigs in an area near Manila. If you want to read about the identification of Ebola Reston read "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston; also consider how close pigs are to humans and how many times pigs have been the crossover points for human flu epidemics and pandemics. Came across this and couldn't help but think of the movie Outbreak.

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSMAN392763

MANILA, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The Philippines will slaughter 6,000 pigs at a hog farm north of the capital Manila to prevent the spread of the Ebola-Reston virus, health and farm officials said on Monday.

But the government has lifted a quarantine on a second hog farm after tests by experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO), World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and Food and the Agriculture Organisation (FAO) showed no more signs of the disease.

The country has more than 13 million heads of swine and the discovery of Ebola-Reston on two hog farms north of Manila was isolated, the government said.

"There is ongoing viral transmission in Bulacan ... as a precautionary measure, depopulation will be carried out in the Bulacan farm," Health Secretary Francisco Duque told reporters, referring to the farm just north of Manila.

The government said 6,000 pigs would be killed, burned and buried as experts sought to determine the source of Ebola-Reston in pigs as well as pig-to-pig and from pig-to-human transmission. Duque said 147 human samples have been tested for Ebola, but only six have tested positive. But all six remain healthy, he added.

"Ebola-Reston poses a low risk to human health at this time," Duque said.

It is the first time the virus has been found outside monkeys and the first time it has been found in pigs. The virus had previously jumped from monkeys to humans but this was the first case of a jump from hogs.

The Ebola-Reston virus was found in the Philippines as early as the late 1980s and 25 people were found infected after contact with sick monkeys. But only one developed flu-like symptoms and later recovered. (Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by Sugita Katyal)
 
B

BREWER

Veteran Member
Wow...

H2O: Good catch. I read Preston's book and this certainly needs to be monitored very, very, closely. Thanks. BREWER
 
T

tanstaafl

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Great, just great ... pigs-to-human transmission (and vice versa) is one of THE most active disease vectors.

Reading "The Hot Zone" scared the ever lovin' crap out of me, and because it was a true story to this day is still one of the scariest books I've ever read. Most especially because DURING the outbreak I rode the bike path to work (almost every day, both ways) that went right by that Reston bio facility where they kept those monkeys. Which means that I, personally, could have potentially been one of the earliest human casualties of Ebola Reston if it had jumped to humans. And of all the ways to die, having my insides liquify and spew out of every orifice has to be near the top of the list of bad ways to go. I know that I, for one, sure as hell didn't get any news to tell me NOT to ride that bike path, which in hindsight was a huge wake-up call for me. I will copy the above story and insert it into my copy of "The Hot Zone" (something I do if I see new stories with new information directly expanding on a book's subject).

By the way, Richard Preston (author of "The Hot Zone") also wrote a book titled, "The Demon in the Freezer: A True Story" (c. 2002). I recently picked up a copy at the local Goodwill store and haven't read it yet (it's next on my book pile), but I understand it's about Smallpox and the effort to completely destroy all stockpiles of the disease. Not to give away the book's ending (which I don't even actually know), but I already know that effort ultimately failed and Smallpox is still very much out there. Hopefully still frozen and not in the hands of anyone who thinks they can weaponize and then use it "safely," but Smallpox is almost certainly being incubated and actively studied in several places around the world.
 
denfoote

denfoote

Inactive
Tinfoil hat time!!

Kinda makes you wonder why pork is on sale this week, at least at the grocery stores in the metro Phoenix area!!
 
RCSAR

RCSAR

Veteran Member
Hmm if geneticly altered for pigs then that would sure put a hitch in our economy.

Plus the Muslim thing about pigs too. It would demonstrate how the pigs brought us down.
 
China Connection

China Connection

TB Fanatic
My bone soup for this week is pork bone soup made with Chinese grown pigs. Still alive so far. I cook it off all at once and store it in the fridge and reheat a batch each day.
 
O

OddOne

< Yes, I do look like that.
H2O said:
Ebola Reston - the only known strain of Ebola that speards airborne has, until now, only been symtomatic in monkeys and is limited to the Phillipines. It has now crossed over to pigs in an area near Manila. If you want to read about the identification of Ebola Reston read "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston; also consider how close pigs are to humans and how many times pigs have been the crossover points for human flu epidemics and pandemics. Came across this and couldn't help but think of the movie Outbreak.

...

The Ebola-Reston virus was found in the Philippines as early as the late 1980s and 25 people were found infected after contact with sick monkeys. But only one developed flu-like symptoms and later recovered. (Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by Sugita Katyal)
Click to expand...

Ebola Reston is named for where it was first discovered: Reston, Virginia. (It came over from the Phillippines in monkeys and broke out in quarrantine.)

We really don't want or need an airborne version of Ebola to become human-infectious...
 
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