Scientists test universal flu vaccine on pigs with encouraging results
The influenza virus (flu) is a major health threat to humans and animals such as pigs, causing illness and major economic losses to producers and farmers. Pig flu viruses can also sometimes jump from pigs to humans and cause pandemics, as happened in 2009.
There are many different strains of flu virus and currently each strain requires a unique vaccine. This means that new vaccines are constantly needed in order to combat the high amount of different virus strains that are created through mutation.