I grew up in Orlando during the last century – somehow that make me sound like one of the ancient ones. I have to admit, I am getting there. Anyway. In my youth Orlando had no “metropolitan area” and was a mid-sized with population of just a little over 52,000 people – and an annual county fair. The fair grounds were towards downtown in the area now west of I-4 and extending west to Paramour Ave.The County Fair had rides, games, carnival entertainment, as well as the agriculture and animal exhibits and showings. It was the only county fair I’d known, so I assume it was fairly typical. I mention this because of recent article about county fairs and pigs. I will always remember being about seven years old and having no idea how a cute little piglet could grown into this massive house-sized hog.

A team of veterinarians from Ohio State University have been studying country fairs and the occurrence of swine flu. Seems county fair are becoming a kind of hot spot for the spread of swine flu. Since 2011, there have been more confirmed human cases of swine flu in the United States than anywhere else in the world. (That may be because other nations are doing less testing and surveillance, and many cases here and abroad are likely to go undetected, experts say.) Turns out that pigs are a mixing bowl for influence viruses. A pig can be infected by swine, bird and human flu viruses simultaneously. Depending on the mix, shuffle some genetic material here and there and voila, a new versions of the virus. There was 2009 outbreak of a new variant swine flu that took an estimated 150,000 lives.

Des Moines, Iowa hold the largest pig-show, called a jackpot show, which attract serious swine competitors, bring together pigs from far-flung farms, causing new flu variants to spread across the country.  It is the largest, but just one of many spring and summer gatherings. In about 25% of the shows, the swine flu virus is detected and inevitably jumps from one infected pig to others.  Spillover from swine to people is not a rare event. A 2012 spillover from an Ohio show lead to 300 confirmed cases in people.

Giving the unique swine mixing bowl dynamics to create new viruses, who knows? Pigs might be the source of the new novel virus outbreak. But we’ve learned somethings over the last pandemic, and now it is standard for shows to have hand-sanitizing stations and the availability of disposable gloves.

All that being said, there is still the seven-old me that is still amazed at how big a hog gets. I wonder what I would have though if I had seen Big Bill, the largest hog ever weighed. He tipped the scales tipped the scales at 2,552 pounds back in 1933. Big Bill’s weight was verified by the Guinness Book of World Records.

Image credit: Bryon Houlgrave | 2018 Iowa Register | the hog’s name: Itty Bitty