Newly Funded: University of Minnesota Researchers Secure $500K USDA Grant to Study Novel Pig Influenzas

A team of researchers at the University of Minnesota has secured $500,000 to study how new influenza virus strains emerge, persist, and spread in pig populations--and what age, well-being, farm-production type, and epidemiological factors might help predict whether a new virus strain emerges.

Though most pigs recover from influenza, the virus affects pork producers financially because infected pigs take longer to gain weight--meaning more time on the farm prior to market. The most common cause of new infectious strains in both pigs and people is something called viral gene reassortment, which occurs when two different influenza viruses infect the same cell and then swap gene segments.