Nine year old Aaden Campbell is cleaning out pig stalls at the Monroe County Fair. It's his first year in 4-H and he's been raising his pigs to show at the fair since January. But this isn't a new activity for his family.
"Oh my gosh, well just our family, we've been doing it for about 10 years," says Aaden's mom, Stacie Campbell.
Campbell says the process is a learning experience she believes is important for her five kids.
"It's not about just the daily chores of taking care of an animal, it's also how these animals are raised and what it takes to sustain their life and to raise a healthy animal that you put back into society," she says.
But there is a risk associated with not just raising pigs, but being around pigs in general. About five years ago most of Campbell's pigs tested positive for swine flu. Around that same time, in 2012, Public Information Director for the State Board of Animal Health, Denise Derrer says public health officials were realizing that some forms of swine flu could be passed between humans and pigs.
"What really was the big difference was it was the first time in the U.S. that we had people and pigs in the same environments getting the same strain of flu at the same time." Derrer says. "So, we knew it was passing back in forth between the people and pigs."
"There's constantly diseases in both populations and they pass back in forth."
In 2012, Derrer says 138 people with known swine exposure tested positive.
This year, the Morgan County fair had 370 total pigs on the grounds. That's a record, and it's a lot of pigs coming from different places and staying in close quarters. It's the perfect place for Dr. Andrew Bowman, an assistant professor with the Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine at Ohio State, to do some research.
"We've used fairs as a place to get pigs from lots of farms in one spot, so we can see what strains of flu are out there instead of going farm to farm to farm," Bowman says.
The team began the research project in 2009, traveling to fairs mostly in Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana. They find influenza at about a quarter of the 100 fairs they attend. They tested 20 randomly chosen pigs in Morgan County.
"Basically if there's 15 percent of the pigs that have flu, we have 95 percent confidence that we're actually going to find it when we sample," Bowman says.
They take a nasal wipe to the pig's nose, put it in a viral transport, then freeze it for two months. It's not always an enjoyable activity for the pigs, but it all serves a purpose.
"We don't want to have any regulatory impact. We're not regulatory in any way, shape, or form," Bowman says. "This is all purely research. So, they sit in the freezer so that we don't have any impact on the fair. By the time we know the results, the fair is long over, then we can use that information to help guide future policies or understand which viruses were there, and study how it spreads through pig populations."
Over the years, research has shaped recommended policies for fairs and those raising pigs. Some guidelines include requiring pigs to get vaccinated and temperature checked upon entry, as well as limiting the time pigs spend in the barns.
"When the public comes, they want to see a full barn. We don't have a full barn right now, but we have a safe barn."
According to the State Board of Animal Health, most fairs are using the recommendations in some way. County Extension Director Rena Sheldon says pigs are kept in the barns for no more than 72 hours at the Morgan County Fair.
"There's a down side to that because when the public comes, they want to see a full barn," Sheldon says. "We don't have a full barn right now, but we have a safe barn."
Although researchers learn more each year, strains of the flu virus come and go in mysterious ways. A fair in Clinton Ohio tested positive for flu virus this past July. The state veterinarian ordered the barn to be quarantined and the animals slaughtered.
"We had a lot of pork owners who were concerned we would adopt that policy in Indiana, so we spent a lot of time trying to allay their fears in that's not the normal protocol that we would follow," Derrer says. "That's not something we expect we would do based on having flu in few animals."
Even though the animals wouldn't necessarily be slaughtered, Derrer says the pigs would need to be taken out of the barns immediately to reduce the chance of exposure. She says it's important to continue learning more about flu viruses for the sake of fairs, humans, and the animals. And Bowman agrees.
"There's constantly diseases in both populations and they pass back in forth," Bowman says. "The question we don't have a handle on is predicting which ones will cross that barrier, which ones are of concern to us, and which ones aren't."
Campbell says, as someone who cares for pigs, she appreciates the research. She says her family wants their pigs to be healthy.
"It's a risk that you take with anything, I mean you can have a house animal that would get sick too," Campbell says. "It would be the same thing, or your children, you take the same precautions."
Officials say it's important to note that even if a pig does become ill with influenza, the virus is not transmitted through the meat.
