Why is pandemic H1N1 2009 surveillance among animals so important?
Surveillance for pandemic H1N1 2009 and other influenza viruses in animal populations has benefits for animal and human health. For animal health, epidemiological and virological surveillance provides useful information for animal production management and operations, leads to the development of better diagnostic tests, improves our understanding of the local, regional, and global animal health situation related to pandemic H1N1 2009 and other influenza viruses, and can benefit animal vaccine development. Perhaps the larger benefits of surveillance for pandemic H1N1 2009 relate to public health needs. The major international desire expressed by public health relating to the occurrence of influenza viruses in animals, particularly in pigs, concerns the potential for the pandemic virus to mutate or exchange genes with circulating swine influenza or other influenza viruses and that the result of these reassortments and mutations might be able to cause more severe disease in humans in the
