Prevalence of swine influenza and other viral, bacterial, and parasitic zoonoses in veterinarians.

been carried out among them. Therefore, we initiated a seroepide-were obtained in central Europe, confirm the zoonotic potential of swine influenza virus, as indicated by Wentworth et al. [1], and To the Editor—Wentworth et al. [1] recently described the trans-extend this potential to other agents. mission of swine influenza virus to humans after exposure to exper-During a veterinary meeting in May 1995, 137 veterinarians imentally infected pigs. Human infections with influenza A viruses from the state of Styria in Austria agreed to participate in this of the H1N1 subtype are seldom found today (e.g., all influenza study. The mean age of the participants was 41 years (range, 24– A isolates in the United States in the 1996–1997 season were of 72), and 22% were women. The participants represented 52% of the H3N2 subtype [2]); however, the H1N1 subtype is widespread the veterinarians practicing in Styria. They completed a question-in the swine population. In 1994, my colleagues and I conducted naire, and blood samples were obtained at that time. The sera were a study in several Austrian states and found that 24.5% of fattening coded and sent to the diagnostic laboratories, where they were pigs had antibodies to influenza A virus H1N1, and seropositive tested for antibodies to a variety of known and potential viral, animals were found on 41% of the farms [3]. This indicates a bacterial, and parasitic zoonotic agents. The serologic results were large reservoir for possible human infections, which is especially correlated with the statements in the questionnaire and analyzed important because a relatively high percentage of the documented statistically. human H1N1 infections have been fatal (references summarized In this study, 8.8% of the veterinarians had antibodies to influ-in [1]). enza A virus H1N1. This percentage is much higher than the Even though veterinarians are frequently exposed to swine influenza virus and other zoonotic agents, no detailed studies have average prevalence for the infection, and a statistically significant Table 1. Prevalence of antibodies to viral, bacterial, and parasitic zoonotic agents in 137 veterinarians in Austria.