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| | Hepatitis E Virus Found in Pigs, March 1998 |
 | | Although it closely resembles the strain of hepatitis E that makes people ill, the pig virus does not appear to cause disease in either pigs or people. |
 | | To explore the nature of these infections in pigs, Xiang-Jin Meng, M.D., Ph.D., working with Dr. Purcell and their LID colleague Suzanne U. Emerson, Ph.D., screened swine blood samples with an assay designed to detect antibodies to strains of human hepatitis E virus. |
 | | If that were the case, says Dr. Meng, the strong immunologic cross-reactivity of the swine and human strains suggests that swine hepatitis E virus could prove useful as a vaccine against the human virus. |
| www.niaid.nih.gov /publications/dateline/0398/hep.htm (718 words) |
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