Riffing on Ellis: swine flupocalypse!

Okay, being sited at a major, cutting-edge hospital during the initial stages of a potential pandemic has been interesting enough to date, with the growing cannonades of e-mails regarding "Don't Panic!" and "here's what to do" and "here's what we're already doing."

Throw in the bit where I'm situated in a department that handles all of the campus animal research, AND trains veterinary residents, AND has various and sundry animal herds on and around campus, and it gets downright intriguing.

It's not every day that one gets an e-mail basically describing what to look for in the swine used on campus, to monitor for the progress of flu infections in our animal populations.

(Basically, take your average variety of seasonal flu and make it milder in the pig.)