Research led by Honglei Sun at China Agricultural University (CAU) in Beijing has identified such a strain in pigs that has already begun to infect humans. Called G4, it incorporates genes from three distinct influenza strains: There is currently no evidence that G4 can pass from person to person.
However, the presence of genes from the H1N1 pandemic strain suggests that it might develop this ability in the future.Between 2011 and 2018, the research team analyzed about 30,000 nasal swabs taken from pigs at slaughterhouses in 10 Chinese provinces.They also analyzed 1,000 swabs from pigs with respiratory symptoms that had received treatment at CAU’s veterinary teaching hospital.