Up till now, there is a notion in India that swine flu was a human to human infection as last year Indian Pigs were not detected with deadly influenza A H1N1 virus. But a research paper published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research claims that this year swines of India are detected with flu.

Pigs have been detected with a virus which is quite similar to the one that caused the 2009 swine flu pandemic, revealed by the team of researchers headed by Dr K Nagarajan of the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai.

In the August issue of the journal, it is clearly mentioned that Influenza A H1N1 virus in Indian pigs & its genetic relatedness with pandemic human influenza A 2009 H1N1.

The report also mentioned that it is difficult to know since when this virus has been circulating among Indian pigs.

According to the report published, this dual infection may result in high transmissibility of the disease and can increase the chances of fatality in human beings. In order to avoid such circumstances it is advisable to go far intensive observations of humans, pigs and poultry.

The team has investigated the records of the clinical history of pigs provided by the owners of the pig farms in Uttar Pradesh. The researchers have collected blood samples, nasal and ocular swab from the pigs to continue their research at the National CSF Referral Laboratory in Izatnagar in Uttar Pradesh. During research, they come across a virus in pigs which has a close genetic relationship with the one that has caused swine flu last year.

As for now, no case has been reported from any pig farms in Uttar Pradesh since many of them are working closely with the infected animals since last year. Dr Nagarajan is still in dilemma to find out the sources of this virus as he himself is confused that how these pigs get infected, he is not sure that whether this infection was spread through humans or by any other means.

Although till date no swine flu case has been reported from any pig farm but that does not mean that probability of its occurrence is nil, there are many examples throughout the world showing human catching infections from ailing pigs like in US and Mexico.