August, 1998, North Carolina. 2,400 animals fall ill with symptoms similar to the human flu. Almost 10% of pregnant sows lose their litters. Surviving piglets are born small and weak as about 50 sows die. The disease that struck these animals was a new strain of flu. The animals had little immunity to the new swine flu. Influenza strains outside North America experience continuous adaption, but this was the first such sign of a flu virus evolving into a different strain and sickening American pigs since 1930.
