China has said it will take all steps to prevent the spread of a new strain of flu being carried by pigs that was identified by scientists in the country while the WHO called for heightened vigilance to contain it for its potential to become another pandemic like Covid-19.
China was the first nation where the highly contagious Covid-19 broke out last year, which gradually spread to the entire world that till now has infected 10,424,992 people and killed 509,706, according to Johns Hopkins University.
China till now has reported 83,531 with 4,634 deaths due to the viral disease.
Chinese researchers have issued an early warning over another potential pandemic caused by an influenza virus in pigs, coming after the COVID-19, the official media here reported on Tuesday.
The warning came after scientists from China Agricultural University, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and other institutes, detected a pig influenza virus bearing genotype 4 (G4), which is contagious among pigs and has the possibility of jumping to humans, as the G4 virus is able to bind with human cells, state-run Global Times reported.
The study was published Monday in the US science journal PNAS.
Researchers collected samples between 2011 and 2018 among pigs in 10 Chinese provinces and regions, and found that the virus was prevalent in pigs since 2016.
Some 10.4 per cent (35/338) of pig farm workers tested positive for antibodies against the virus, according to the paper.
The researchers are concerned that it could mutate further so that it can spread easily from person to person, and trigger a global outbreak, the BBC reported.
While it is not an immediate problem, they say, it has “all the hallmarks” of being highly adapted to infect humans and needs close monitoring. As it is new, people could have little or no immunity to the virus.
The scientists write in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that measures to control the virus in pigs, and the close monitoring of swine industry workers, should be swiftly implemented.