WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An international team of researchers said Monday it had mapped the DNA of a domestic pig, work they say could help lead to better breeding techniques as well as improve vaccines against diseases such as swine flu.

They plan to look for genes useful in pork production and immunity in pigs, which are similar in size to humans. And, like humans, they catch influenza very easily.

“Understanding the swine genome will lead to health advancements in the swine population and accelerate the development of vaccinations for pigs,” said Roger Beachy, Director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

“This new insight into the genetic makeup of the swine population can help reduce disease and enable medical advancements in both pigs and humans,” Beachy said in a statement.

“The pig is a unique animal that is important for food and that is used as an animal model for human disease,” added Larry Schook of the University of Illinois in Champaign, who helped direct the project.

“And because the native wild animals are still in existence, it is a really exciting animal to look at to learn about the genomic effects of domestication.”

The pandemic H1N1 swine flu virus originated in pigs and evidence suggests it can be passed from humans to pigs and back again. Pigs are also susceptible to many other strains of influenza.

What is a Torch test?

The TORCH test, which is sometimes called the TORCH panel, belongs to a category of blood tests called infectious-disease antibody titer tests. This type of blood test measures the presence of antibodies (protein molecules produced by the human immune system in response to a specific disease agent) and their level of concentration in the blood. The name of the test comes from the initial letters of the five disease categories. The TORCH test measures the levels of an infant’s antibodies against five groups of chronic infections: toxoplasmosis, other infections, rubella, cytomegalovirus (CMV), and herpes simplex virus (HSV). The “other infections” usually include syphilis, hepatitis B, coxsackie virus, Epstein-Barr virus, varicella-zoster virus, and human parvovirus.
Since the TORCH test is a screening or first-level test, the pediatrician may order tests of other body fluids or tissues to confirm the diagnosis of a specific infection. In the case of toxoplasmosis, rubella, and syphilis, cerebrospinal fluid may be obtained from the infant through a spinal tap in order to confirm the diagnosis. In the case of CMV, the diagnosis is confirmed by culturing the virus in a sample of the infant’s urine. In HSV infections, tissue culture is the best method to confirm the diagnosis.