LiveScience Staff
Some prize pigs at Ohio's county fairs
may have a dark secret.
Two months ago, a 61-year-old Ohio woman
died after catching a new strain of swine
flu. Her death was the first fatality linked to a variant of influenza A
virus H3N2 (H3N2v), which first appeared in humans in 2011 and has infected
more than 300 people this year.
Like many individuals who caught H3N2v
this summer, the woman who died had contact
with pigs at a county fair, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC). The flu-risk at livestock exhibitions might be
especially high because the majority of flu-positive pigs at county fairs don't
show any outward signs of illness, a new study suggests.
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