Abstract
Agricultural fairs provide an opportunity for bidirectional transmission of influenza A viruses. We sought to determine influenza A virus activity among swine at fairs in the United States. As part of an ongoing active influenza A virus surveillance project, nasal swab samples were collected from exhibition swine at 40 selected Ohio agricultural fairs during 2012. Influenza A(H3N2) virus was isolated from swine at 10 of the fairs. According to a concurrent public health investigation, 7 of the 10 fairs were epidemiologically linked to confirmed human infections with influenza A(H3N2) variant virus. Comparison of genome sequences of the subtype H3N2 isolates recovered from humans and swine from each fair revealed nucleotide identities of >99.7%, confirming zoonotic transmission between swine and humans. All influenza A(H3N2) viruses isolated in this study, regardless of host species or fair, were >99.5% identical, indicating that 1 virus strain was widely circulating among exhibition swine in Ohio during 2012.
Highlights
Agricultural fairs provide an opportunity for bidirectional transmission of influenza A viruses
Influenza A(H3N2pM) virus was recovered from swine at all 7 fairs that had been epidemiologically linked to cases of human infection with subtype H3N2v virus
A(H3N2pM) viruses were commonly circulating among exhibition swine in Ohio during the 2012 agricultural fair season, and genome analysis confirmed zoonotic transmission that resulted in human infection with subtype H3N2v virus
Summary
Agricultural fairs provide an opportunity for bidirectional transmission of influenza A viruses. According to a concurrent public health investigation, 7 of the 10 fairs were epidemiologically linked to confirmed human infections with influenza A(H3N2) variant virus. Epidemiologic investigations by public health officials into human cases of influenza virus subtype H3N2v infection that occurred during 2012 concluded that swine exposure at agricultural fairs was the primary source of the viruses [17,18,19]. During the investigation of the 2012 outbreak of influenza A(H3N2v) virus infection, public health officials in Ohio documented 107 confirmed human cases, second only to the number of cases reported from Indiana. When combined with the results of the public health epidemiologic investigation, our data provide molecular corroboration that swine-tohuman transmission of influenza A(H3N2v) virus occurred at multiple agricultural fairs
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