Farmed pigs in Victoria, Australia that had been exhibiting flu like symptoms have newly been confirmed to be infected with the same strain of the swine flu virus as the one circulating among humans.

These pigs join a group of 200 others in New South Wales that had just been quarantined with the swine flu.
All 200 of those pigs were shortly declared well and sent to market, where they are to be slaughtered and enter the food supply.

Some medical experts fear that such flu virus infections are very common in pigs.
Moreover, a similarly high prevalence of flu is found in swine workers. In fact, the New South Wales workers who had contact with the infected pigs recall having flu-like symptoms shortly before the pigs’ swine flu was diagnosed.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least one-third of pigs have harbored flu viruses during their short, stressful lives.

The swine flu pandemic continues to cost lives, with total global fatalities now officially surpassing 2,851.
The aggregate number of cases is expected to be in the millions, too many for governments to feasibly count.
A 119th person has been confirmed to have died of swine flu in Thailand, where total cases have reached 14,976.

Brazil has reported more fatalities, totaling 557, and Ecuador’s death toll reached 36.
Despite approaching the end of swine flu season in Australia, cases have not peaked yet, and the death toll there has reached 147.

Iran’s first swine flu death just occurred, and a 35-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man were the most recent
to perish from swine flu in India, bringing the total to 79.

Kuwait also reported that a 2-and-a-half-year-old child became the Kingdom’s fourth fatality.
We offer our sympathies and prayers to the loved ones of those who have succumbed to this virus and wish for the safe recovery of the afflicted.

May we find our solution to the many uncertainties of this situation by choosing alternatives to the risk-filled
animal agriculture, living instead in meat-free harmony with our co-inhabitants.

http://theland.farmonline.com.au/news/state/livestock/pigs/dunedoo-flufree-pigs-off-to-market/1606855.aspx
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/national/5860267/vic-piggery-flu-ame-as-human-strain/
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-08/26/content_11944998.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-08/26/content_11949018.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/26/2667859.htm?site=news
http://www.ptinews.com/news/249282_Swine-flu-claims-two-more-lives--toll-mounts-to-79
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gMkNHWwVHadpuOu_9jD6XAgt-nLw
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gMkNHWwVHadpuOu_9jD6XAgt-nLw
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/national/5860582/aussie-swine-flu-outbreak-yet-to-peak/