That interchange allows viruses to spread directly from pigs to humans. That's called a "dead-end" jump because the disease generally goes no further. But the problem with the current flu is that it spreads directly from person to person.
There is confusion in the media about what to call the current H1N1 virus. Certainly the pork industry is suffering for no good reason since eating pork or even being around livestock does not spread the flu that is now circulating. It is only because of the genesis of the H1N1 virus that we refer to it as swine flu. Perhaps that's not fair. These are human diseases, created by farming and agricultural practices that have come home to roost in human-to-human contagion.
That is why Dr. Walters, author of "Six Modern Plagues and How We Are Causing Them" (Island Press, 2004), places the blame for emerging diseases squarely on mankind.
"Animals never cause these things. If an imbalance exists it has been caused by people. We have blasted through the long-standing buffer zones between different species. We have failed to respect them," he said. "You can't blame cows for mad cow."
Dr. Walters views our production of vaccines and medicine, however critical, as a short-term solution to dealing with emerging diseases.
"We have to start looking at where all these diseases are coming from," he said, urging interdisciplinary cooperation. Fortunately a new field of science, conservation medicine, is devoted to this type of research.
"Historically, veterinarians and physicians did not know they had so much to talk about," he said.
Let's hope the many species of scientists can collaborate to find solutions to the causes and spread of influenza.
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