Agricultural fairs provide an opportunity for bidirectional transmission of influenza A viruses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A research project by A. Bowman et al. 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, seven 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 more than 99.7 per cent, confirming zoonotic transmission between swine and humans.

All influenza A(H3N2) viruses isolated in this study, regardless of host species or fair, were more than 99.5 per cent identical, indicating that one virus strain was widely circulating among exhibition swine in Ohio during 2012.

Further Reading

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