MANMADE SWINE FLU DISCOVERED IN 2005 *POSSIBLE FAILED ATTEMPT AT CREATING PANDEMIC* Samples taken from South Korean pigs contain genes from a human flu virus created by scientists in 1933, and one American flu researcher says the sequences could represent a dangerous situation for humans. The World Health Organization, which monitors the worldwide spread of flu, is remaining mum until researchers finish an investigation of the pig samples. The presence of a man-made human flu virus in pigs may be worrisome for several reasons. First, a man-made virus has no business in pigs -- did the virus get there naturally, or was it a lab accident? More frighteningly, but less likely, was it bioterrorism? Second, viruses often use pigs as a conduit to humans, who would have little or no immune resistance to this particular strain of flu since no one has been exposed to it. "In terms of flu, pigs have always represented a danger to humans because these animals act as a mixing vessel for various strains of influenza," said Dick Thompson, a spokesman for the World Health Organization. But WHO won't be convinced that the data is real -- that the human sequences are not a result of laboratory contamination instead of human virus in a pig -- until more laboratories can verify the samples. Henry Niman, founder of Recombinomics and a researcher who has sleuthed the spread of bird flu and its changing genetic makeup for two years, says the investigation is moving too slowly. If pigs in Korea ...
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