RSS
Home
Swine flu research derailed
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Denise Mandeville
COCHONEVILLE, FRANCE--A potentially groundbreaking interspecial communications experiment was derailed when the test animals reacted violently against human presence. And while there is no way to say for sure, the lost information could have been used to develop information to combat swine flu.
Renowned biochemist Pierre Porcinet had worked for several years developing a rudimentary communications system with a family of pigs. It began with simple hoof and snout signals indicating when the pigs thought their pen needed cleaning, but evolved to a point where the animals indicated their preference about music (they liked Madonna) and television (CNN). Unlike most French they didn't much like Jerry Lewis movies, according to Porcinet,
The problems began late last week, when the animals became extremely agitated. This coincided with the first reports of the Swine Flu outbreak. Porcinet felt his dialogue ability with the pigs was robust enough to ask their opinions about how to combat the flu, but the animals reacted violently when he approached.
“I thought there might be some thing that pigs do when they get a cold in the same way that Jewish people drink lots of chicken soup,” Porcinet said. “But they ran away from me, like I was going to give them a disease or something.”
Porcinet said his first impulse was to call his wife and research partner Marie to observe the behavior, but she was busy ironing.
