A Porcine Tale

Thought I will diversify content by posting on my pet interests for a change from dreary local Sopo and economics. Not that I have jettisoned the latter, but just gathering data to make a convincing case, as for the former, the less said the better. For starters, I will introduce two new corners which will run either together or in isolation with my standard entries. Gradually, i will introduce other corners like travel, sports, creative writing etc.

Health Today : So despite what our Chinese owned dailies and the WHO say, reality has a funny way of affirming a truth.

Caption: The Look of Despair

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein, Ap Science Writer – Fri May 1, 12:51 pm ET

WASHINGTON – No matter what you call it, leading experts say the virus that is scaring the world is pretty much all pig. So while the U.S. government and now the World Health Organization are taking the swine out of "swine flu," the experts who track the genetic heritage of the virus say this: If it is genetically mostly porcine and its parents are pig viruses, it smells like swine flu to them.

Six of the eight genetic segments of this virus strain are purely swine flu and the other two segments are bird and human, but have lived in swine for the past decade, says Dr. Raul Rabadan, a professor of computational biology at Columbia University.
A preliminary analysis shows that the closest genetic parents are swine flu strains from North America and Eurasia, Rabadan wrote in a scientific posting in a European surveillance network. Read more here