Ferret gets swine [H1N1] flu from its owner, a first
----------------------------------------------------
It appears that certain pets can catch swine flu from their owners.

Oregon just registered its 1st case of a natural human-animal 
transmission of the H1N1 virus. Actually, it may be the 1st such 
recorded case anywhere, said Emilio DeBess, Oregon state public 
health veterinarian.

A ferret, whose owner had shown flu-like symptoms, tested positive 
for swine flu on [8 Oct 2009].

The owners took the ferret to a veterinary clinic in Portland on 5 
Oct 2009 (DeBess said the clinic asked not to be identified.) The 
animal had severe respiratory illness and showed many of the symptoms 
people associate with the flu: fever, weakness, coughing, and sneezing.

After hearing that the owner suffered from flu symptoms just before 
the ferret got sick, the treating veterinarian called DeBess, whose 
responsibilities include serving as a consultant to Oregon vets.

DeBess asked the vet to send in a sample of the ferret's nasal 
secretions. It was tested at an Oregon State University lab, which 
found genetic markers for the strain of H1N1 that's infecting humans. 
A lab of the U. Department for Agriculture confirmed the finding on 9 Oct 2009.

This came as little surprise to DeBess. Ferrets, which are sensitive 
toward respiratory illness, have been used in labs to see how the flu 
will affect people, he said. But this may be the 1st case anywhere of 
a ferret catching the flu from its owner, without the help of lab 
technicians, he said.

The ferret is recovering.

DeBess put the staff at the clinic on "fever watch" after the test 
results came in. No one at the clinic had gotten sick as of last week 
[week of 12 Oct 2009], he said.

Ferret owners need to be careful during flu season. And that goes 
both ways. If you have a ferret that's sneezing and coughing, wash 
your hands a lot and definitely take it to a vet. If you are sick 
with flu-like symptoms, handle your ferret sparingly. Don't cough or 
sneeze near it.

The same is true for birds, DeBess said. Birds are basically the 
origin of all flu viruses, historically, and they "can get any and 
all flu viruses," he said. However, no cases of birds contracting 
H1N1 are documented in this country.

In the past 5 years the flu virus has mutated into a strain called 
H3N8, which infects dogs. It's not known to transmit to humans. No 
known strain infects cats, and neither cats nor dogs can carry H1N1.

[Byline: Jacques Von Lunen]

--
Communicated by:
Bruce Kaplan, DVM, Dipl AVES (Hon)
<bkapdvm@verizon.net>

[Many thanks to Bruce Kaplan for sending this information in.

This story underscores a well known scientific reality -- influenza A 
viruses have many warm blooded hosts, both animal and human, and move 
between them from time to time. The situation is summarized by 
Fouchier, Osterhaus, and Brown as follows:

"Influenza virus types A, B, and C all belong to the family of 
_Orthomyxoviridae_ and have therefore many biological properties in 
common. A key difference between them is their in vivo host-range; 
whereas influenza viruses of types B and C are predominantly human 
pathogens that have also been isolated from seals and pigs, 
respectively, influenza A viruses have been isolated from many 
species including humans, pigs, horses, marine mammals, and a wide 
range of domestic and wild birds."

So to find this new, novel H1N1 virus occurring for the 1st time in 
ferrets should not be truly surprising. For example, if the H5N1 
pandemic is any guide, these influenza A viruses will move from time 
to time into new species. Hopefully, we will follow it closely and 
pick up these important epidemiologic clues. As the H5N1 pandemic 
evolved, we found the H5N1 virus in domestic cats, tigers, civets, 
and very recently Chinese pikas, a species closely related to rabbits.

Given that the disease so far has been clinically mild when it shows 
up, it underscores the old epidemiologic adage that "If you don't 
look, you don't find." The practicing veterinarian in Oregon really 
should be congratulated for looking. His exemplary curiosity and 
commitment to public health goals of the veterinary profession were 
evident when he called Oregon's public health veterinarian, Dr Emilio 
DeBess. Dr DeBess also did a great job obtaining a sample and 
characterizing it as H1N1 pandemic strain. The article quotes Dr 
DeBess as saying we haven't had pandemic H1N1 in birds in the United 
States, which is true but ironically just today (20 Oct 2009), 
ProMED-mail published the 1st pandemic H1N1 in turkeys in Kitchener, 
Canada. So it is not far away.

This new observation is a good piece of disease detective luck but we 
shouldn't rely on chance for our knowledge of influenza A viruses in 
animals, whether it be dogs, cats, ferrets, or pet birds, or any 
other animal that lives in close association with people. Likewise, 
active surveillance in food animal species would also help us look 
and subsequently find more concerning the distribution of pandemic 
H1N1. Finally, given that many times the transmission is from humans 
to newly susceptible animal species, the more people infected with 
H1N1 as the virus spreads this fall (2009), the more often we will 
likely see these '1st time in a new species' type of observations.

Again, Fouchier, Osterhaus, and Brown sum up the situation nicely: 
"Although it will be virtually impossible to prevent new outbreaks of 
influenza in humans and animals, it is now well recognised that 
global animal influenza virus surveillance can play a key role in the 
early recognition of new threats. Insights into the prevalence of 
influenza A viruses in animals in our environment may provide a clue 
for which viruses to look out for. In the reference laboratories, the 
pathogenic and antigenic properties of the circulating viruses can be 
determined and panels of reference reagents required for testing of 
animals and humans can be updated when needed. Importantly, the 
intensified global surveillance of animal influenza may shed new 
light on questions related to the temporal and spatial variation in 
circulating influenza viruses and the epidemiology, ecology and 
evolution of influenza A viruses."


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Wow. That whole article is just mind boggling, and scary.

Yikes this story gives me the creeps.

my birds are fine, but my kitty has been sick for the first time in her 8 year life..........coughing, sneezing, general malise. She has been on antibiotics for almost a week..............STILL makes me wonder..............................

More ferrets in Oregon get swine flu from owners

By Lynne Terry, The Oregonian

November 10, 2009, 12:48PM

More ferrets in Oregon have developed swine flu from their owners, fueling worries that the virus could jump from the pets to people.

“We are advising vets to take care because of the possibility of animal to human transmission,” said Emilio DeBess, the state public health veterinarian.

So far, the virus has only gone one way — from owners to their ferrets.

In early October, the first case of human to ferret transmission of the H1N1 virus was documented by DeBess in the Portland area. Then at the end of last month, nine ferrets owned by a family in Roseburg came down with flulike symptoms, he said.

That was a week after two kids in the Roseburg family — a teenager and a child younger than 10 — got sick with the swine flu.

Like the kids, the ferrets developed high fevers, red eyes, runny noses and they were coughing and sneezing.

“If the ferrets could talk, they’d say ‘Oh my God, my body aches,’” DeBess said.

Tests on three of the ferrets confirmed that they had the H1N1 virus. DeBess suspects that the others had the virus as well.

Ferrets, which mimic human flu symptoms, are used in labs researching the flu. DeBess said ferrets are especially susceptible to catching pneumonia.

A pet ferret in Nebraska that caught the H1N1 virus from its family died, and a cat in Iowa has come down with the virus, said Michael San Filippo, spokesman for the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Pigs in Indiana have also contracted the virus along with swine in Canada and other countries. Two health inspectors were infected with the H1N1 virus when they visited the sick swine herd in Canada, San Filippo said.

“These are the only two cases that we know of of animals passing the virus to people,” San Filippo said. “All the other cases involve are people passing it to animals.”

Still, DeBess has warned veterinarians in the state to protect themselves from sneezing and coughing ferrets and other pets. Owners need to take precautions as well, he said.

The virus passes from humans to ferrets — or cats — the same way it is transmitted among humans. Coughing and sneezing can spread the virus which can remain infectious for about a week outside the body. That means that owners — and vets — need to thoroughly wash their hands when handling sick pets or when they are sick.

The ferrets and their owners in both the Portland area and Roseburg are fine, DeBess said.

The flu season is far from over. So far, 1,015 people have been hospitalized in Oregon with influenza-like illness and 33 people have died, the Department of Human Services said today.

The state has sent up a Web page here with the latest information about influenza in Oregon.

-- Lynne Terry

that's really bizarre..isn't it.
The more I learn....the less I understand....
(if that makes sense)

yet the more I see......
it concerns the hmmm out of mee

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/05/01/swine-flu-spanish-origin.html