| Submit your comments on this article |
| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Have Bioterrorists Infected Swine in Korea with Human WSN/33? |
| 2005-05-01 |
| Posted by:phil_b |
| #3 While a virus could evolve towards a known genotype. My understanding is, it is wildly improbable - monkeys typing Shakespeare kind of stuff. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-05-01 8:17:31 PM |
| #2 I suspect that the pigs have picked up a strain that is very prone to mutation. That is, from a single-strain infection, a individual animal might have 2-5 mutations. Get a herd together, and they almost act as a group of laboratories that selectively breed the "most effective" strain, with strains competing in 'semi-finals' with each other, until one mutates enough so that the herd has no defense against it. They they all get it. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-05-01 7:33:46 PM |
| #1 I'll finger the Norks for this, although how the virus got into Skor pigs is a mystery. I wouldn't discount a covert bioweapons attack/experiment by those fun loving folks north of the DMZ. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-05-01 6:22:59 PM |