Additionally, "[t]he animals who caught both kinds of flu ... had worse symptoms," the AP reports. "And they easily spread the new swine flu, what scientists formally call the 2009 H1N1 virus, to their uninfected ferret neighbors ” but didn't spread regular winter flu strains nearly as easily."

"The results suggest that 2009 H1N1 influenza may out-compete seasonal flu virus strains and may be more communicable as well," Anthony Fauci, director of NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said. "These new data, while preliminary, underscore the need for vaccinating against both seasonal influenza and the 2009 H1N1 influenza this fall and winter" (Neergaard, 9/1).

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