A few weeks ago, most pet owners had not even heard about the Swine Flu that was spreading across the US. Now, pet owners are concerned about if and how the Swine Flu could affect their beloved pets.

It is good to know that every type of mammal and bird can become infected with a form of influenza virus, as there are three main types, namely A, B and C. However, Humans can become infected by differentl forms of all three of these main types of influences; however, most flu varieties in animals and humans that do cause major health concerns are Influenza Type A. Viruses are able to mutate quite rapidly, and since the hosts’ immune systems usually do not protect against any new mutations, new strains are actually able to cause a widespread infection inside the host’s body. Most of the time, new strains can result from the spread of an already existing flu virus from one animal or human species to another species. This provides the virus with the tools necessary to transmit between members of a different species to its usual host.

Swine Flu is a strain of Influenza Type A that is scientifically referred to as H1N1. The traditional Swine Flu outbreak amongst pigs can cause a low mortality rate in pigs. This is not the same strain that is now causing humans to become ill and die. This strain is a combination of genes from pig, bird, and human flu and is actually quite similar to the influenza strain called “Spanish Flu” that was responsible for a human pandemic during 1918.

“Bird Flu” is not the same virus as today’s “Swine Flu”. One of the most important differences between the two is that “Bird Flu” infected humans who had had a direct contact with an infected bird, whereas the “Swine Flu” is transmitted via human to human.

“Bird Flu” has the scientific name of H5N1 and is a strain of Influenza Type A. This type of flu used to pose a great risk to set off a new influenza pandemic because of the fact that it first killed humans in Asia during the 1990’s. However, the “Bird Flu” did not mutate into a form that spreads very easily between humans.

H5N1 is unique because it is seen as a deadly virus to many animal species, including domestic cats, who had previously never been susceptible to any type of influenza virus. Usually, “Feline Flu” actually refers to an Upper Respiratory Tract Infection in Cats. Since most cats do not actually have any exposure to the influenza viruses, any case of flu that is actually able to transmit itself between a human, dog or cat would most probably lead to a widespread infection, since cats do not have any natural immunity to any types of the influenza virus.

Another strain of the Influenza Type A virus, H3N8, or “Equine Influenza”, was found to cause Canine Influenza in 2004; and, since dogs never had a natural exposure to this type of virus before, they do not have any natural immunity to the “Equine Flu” virus.

Even though this new strain of influenza is being called “Swine Flu,” it is actually spread from one human to another and not from pigs to people. This is proven by the mere fact that none of those people living in North America that are infected with this “Swine Flu” virus have had any type of contact with pigs, and, subsequently, there are no pigs living in North America that have been found to be infected with this “Swine Flu” virus.

Therefore, even pigs that are kept as pets are not known to be able to contract this viral strain of “Swine Flu”, although they can contract normal “Swine Flu”, the consequences of such usually are no different than the season flu that affects human beings.

Generally speaking, most of the influenza viruses are not transmitted from one species to another species. That is, dogs and cat do not catch the flu just because their owners have the flu.

Theoretically it is possible for any new influenza strain to transmit itself between humans and other types of domestic animals, such as dogs and cats. However, it is highly probable that such an influenza strain would only be transmissible between humans and one other type of animal. And, since the “Swine Flu” virus actually contains a few genetic elements of pig, avian and human flu viruses, it would be very unlikely that this type of Influenza strain would actually be able to infect hosts that are humans, pigs or birds.

The American Veterinary Medicine Association has issued the following statement:

“There is no evidence that pets are susceptible to this new strain of influenza; it appears to be transmitted solely from person to person”.

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