Can bird flu infect any other animals?
Pigs are known to be carriers of influenza virus and several swine herds in Indonesia have tested positive for the H5N1 strain, which they probably caught by the pigs coming into contact with chicken manure. Scientists fear that pigs can act as ‘mixing vessels’ for flu viruses. When pigs become infected with two or more types of flu, the viruses can swap genetic information to produce new strains which may be more virulent or infectious than the original viruses.
