ISPRA has cooperated on the survey published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE
Viral exchange between human and animal populations represents a crucial factor in the origin of influenza pandemic strains. As in the pandemics of 1918, 1957 and 1968, in the first pandemic of the third millennium the animal reservoir played a key epidemiologic role in the ecology of influenza A viruses emerging from animals and transmitted to humans. In particular, as occurred in the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, it is well known the ability of pigs as intermediate hosts for the reassortment of avian and mammalian viruses, including human ones.
The present survey, carried out by ISPRA, INAIL, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Università degli Studi di Brescia, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia ed Emilia-Romagna, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, aims to investigate the health risk of occupational exposure to swine influenza viruses circulating in Italian herds.
Results of the study provide new insight into the interspecies transmission mechanisms of influenza A viruses at the human-animal-environment interface, highlighting the presence of antibodies against H1N1 swine flu viruses in swine workers.
The key findings of the research, funded by the Ministry of Health and INAIL, result from an integrated medical-veterinary surveillance approach aimed to develop new strategies for prevention and protection of workers and, in addition, open up perspectives on potential applications of heterologous cross-protective immunity elicited by human and animal influenza A viruses.