Zoonotic diseases pig out on bird flu.

• Position: YOUR LIFE - Brief article

With national attention focused on the avian flu threat, other infections that could be transmitted from animals to people--known as zoonotic diseases--also are coming under scrutiny. Those with work exposure to pigs, such as farmers, veterinarians, and meat processing workers, are at heightened risk of contracting swine influenza, according to researchers in the University of Iowa College of Public Health, Iowa City.

Pigs' physical makeup allows them to contract--and spread--influenza viruses to and from other species, such as humans and birds. Because of this susceptibility, pigs also may serve as "mixing vessel hosts" that can produce new influenza virus strains. If the H5N1 avian influenza virus or another pandemic strain enters the U.S. and infects swine herds or poultry flocks, swine workers and their poultry counterparts may be some of the first to be infected.

Because pigs are susceptible to...