Influenza A virus (IAV) causes respiratory disease in birds and mammals, including pigs and humans. Infection by IAV in pigs increases not only economic losses in the swine industry but also the emergence of novel IAV variants via gene reassortment, which is important due to the susceptibility of both birds and humans to IAV. This study provides serological data obtained during a study to detect IAV infections in pigs in the Republic of Korea during 2018 and 2019. A total of 1,559 samples were collected from 74 domestic pig farms. Hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assays were performed using the A/Swine/Korea/25-13(H1N1), A/Swine/Korea/E102 (H1N2), and A/Swine/Korea/Cy10/2007 (H3N2) viruses as antigens. The HI assay results showed that 266 of the 1,559 samples were seropositive (17.0%). Among these, H1N1, H1N2, and H3N2 comprised 7.3% (114), 6.0% (93), and 8.8% (137) of the 1,559 samples, respectively. Co-infections of H1N1/H1N2, H1N1/H3N2, H1N2/H3N2 and H1N1/H1N2/H3N2 were observed in 2.1% (31), 1.5% (23), 1.5% (24), and 0.8% (13) of the 1,559 samples, respectively. Interestingly, IAV infections were detected in all nine provinces of the country.

In this study, antibody responses after vaccination against equine influenza were investigated among 1,591 horses in the Republic of Korea using the hemagglutination inhibition (HI) test. Equine influenza has not occurred since 2011 and a commercial vaccine against H3N8 has been used. The equine influenza virus, A/equine/South Africa/4/03 (H3N8), was used as the antigen in the HI assay. The mean seropositive rate was 90.5% in 2019. Except for stallion whose seropositive rate was 78.5%, all seropositive rates of other horse types were over 90%. Regionally, except for Gangwon-do and Jeju-do whose seropositive rates were 89.0% and 87.1%, all seropositive rates in other provinces were over 90%. In the future, more through vaccination against equine influenza needs to be done based on this investigation result.

Recently there are increasing numbers of people participating in sports activities. Accordingly, the rate of sports injuries is increasing as well. In this light, this study was conducted to investigate the extent of acute damage and its forms by examining the current state of patients with sports injuries. This research study was conducted between January of 2008 and December of 2010 in Chosun University Hospital through retrospective review of the medical records of patients with sportsrelated injuries. The total number of patients with sports injuries who visited the emergency center was 887. The number of male patients was 726 (81.85%), far more than the number of female patients (18.15%). More than half of the patients, accounting for 419 (47.23%), had injuries on their face; second and common parts, in which injuries occurred, were upper and lower body, accounting for 146 (16.45%) and 193 (21.75%), respectively. The majority of patients did not undergo surgical treatment. Only 113 (12.73%) patients underwent surgical treatment. In addition, more than 80% of them were not hospitalized but 170 of them needed to be hospitalized. Most sports injuries occurred in young male patients. This can interrupt participation in sports activities for a long time and result in lower quality of life. Hence proper preventative measures and scientific treatment methods are needed.