Ebola Virus Strain Found in 6,000 Hogs

The virus Ebola Reston has been identifed in 6,000 domestic pigs in the Phillipines.

Ebola Reston is not the same type as the Zaire, Bundibugyo and Sudan strains, which can cause serious illness and death. It is thought to be the first time Ebola has been documented in pigs.

The hogs were found on several farms 50 miles north of Manila. All of them will be destroyed. Five farm workers were also found to have Ebola Reston but it has not them sick. The World Health Organization has been monitoring the Ebola situation. In early February, they published this statement in the Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response section of their website: “The threat to human health is likely to be low for healthy adults but is unknown for all other population groups, such as immuno-compromised persons, persons with underlying medical conditions, pregnant women and children.”

The main concern of course, is contagiousness of the virus. But in this case, swine to human transmission appears to be very limited both in numbers and in health effects. Any situation involving a strain of the Ebola virus in any community is a cause for concern, but at this time there very fortunately appears to be no cause for alarm. It is estimated farms in the Phillipines currently manage about 13,000,000 hogs.

A similar strain of Ebola was found several times in macaques in the Phillipines from 1989 to 1996. The 25 monkey handlers who worked with them were tested as positive for Ebola Reston. Only one of the workers had symptoms, which were those of a mild flu. That worker experienced a full recovery. Public and animal health investigations for the current situation are ongoing.