Is the dog flu real and are humans at risk

The new virus identified in dogs is H1N1 which is the same strain as the 2009 swine flu. The flu has been passed onto dogs from pigs and this could potentially then effect humans.

A recent study by researchers has found some dogs that have been infected with a flu that could spread. The new virus identified in dogs is H1N1 which is the same strain as the 2009 swine flu. The flu has been passed onto dogs from pigs and this could potentially then effect humans. Although they have not found any case where this has happened as yet.

The warning from this study is to governments to prepare for a possible spread of a mutant flu strain that could become widespread if not stopped in its early stages. Professor Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, director of the Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute.

“What we have found is another set of viruses that come from swine that are originally avian in origin, and now they are jumping into dogs and have been reassorted with other viruses in dogs,”. So far this study has looked at dogs in China where this virus is most likely to spread with the large number of street dogs.

You can read more about flu in dogs from the Independent.co.uk and the research paper here.