Swine influenza (also known as swine flu or pig flu) is a respiratory disease that occurs in pigs that is caused

by the Influenza A virus. Influenza viruses that are normally found in swine are
known as swine influenza viruses (SIVs). The known SIV strains include influenza C and the subtypes of influenza A known as H1N1, H1N2, H3N1, H3N2 and H2N3. Pigs can also become
infected with the H4N6 and H9N2 subtypes.[citation needed]

Swine influenza virus is common throughout pig populations worldwide. Transmission of the virus from pigs to humans is not common and does not always lead to human influenza, often
resulting only in the production of antibodies in the blood. If transmission does cause human influenza, it is called zoonotic swine flu or a variant virus. People with regular exposure to pigs are
at increased risk of swine flu infection. Properly cooking the meat of an infected animal removes the risk of infection.

Pigs experimentally infected with the strain of swine flu that caused the human pandemic of 2009–10 showed clinical signs of flu within four days, and the virus spread to other uninfected pigs
housed with the infected ones.[4]

Notable incidents[edit]
1918–1919 Spanish flu[edit]
Main article: 1918 flu pandemic

The Spanish flu was an unusually severe and deadly strain of H1N1[5] avian influenza, a viral infectious disease, that killed some 17[6] to 50 or more million people worldwide over about a year in
1918 and 1919. It was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.

The 1918 flu caused an abnormally high number of deaths, possibly due to it provoking a cytokine storm in the body.[7][8] (The current H5N1 bird flu, also an Influenza A virus, has a similar
effect.)[9] After the Spanish flu infected lung cells it frequently led to overstimulation of the immune system via release of cytokines (a protein that invokes the immune response) into
the lung tissue. This leads to extensive leukocyte migration towards the lungs, resulting in the destruction of lung cells and secretion of blood and mucus into the alveoli and airways. This
makes it difficult for the patient to breathe and can result in suffocation. In contrast to other pandemics, which mostly kill the old and the very young, the 1918 pandemic killed unusual numbers
of young adults, which may have been due to their healthy immune systems mounting a too-strong and damaging response to the infection. [10]

The term "Spanish" flu was coined because Spain was at the time the only European country where the press were printing reports of the outbreak, which had killed thousands in the armies
fighting World War I (1914–1918). Other countries suppressed the news in order to protect morale.[11]