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H1N1 in Minnesota show pigs concerns checkoff, producers

By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the nation’s pork producers’ profits continue to tumble in the wake of news that the presence of the H1N1 virus was found in show pigs at the Minnesota State Fair, members of the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) took to Capitol Hill last week to ask Congress to come to the aid of the pork industry.

Dr. Jennifer Greiner, director of science and technology for the Des Moines, Iowa-based NPPC, said the public should know that pigs are among a host of animals that can contract the flu, but the respiratory virus does not affect the meat or blood of the animal.
“Pigs have gotten influenza since the early 1900s,” said Greiner, in an NPPC news release dated Oct. 21. “Yes, it takes on different shapes and forms, but we have been dealing with influenza viruses for many years.”

Greiner went on to say the Minnesota pig confirmed with the H1N1 virus possibly was infected through contact with another pig, though it is most likely transmission route was through contact with humans at the fair or elsewhere. “This novel H1N1 is adapted to humans,” she said.

USDA Communications Coordinator Angela Harless told Farm World that the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory, which tested samples from the Minnesota pigs submitted by the University of Minnesota, could not positively confirm whether the virus wound up in the show pigs through human contact or from other swine. In addition, the USDA could not confirm whether a group of Minnesota school children.

visiting the fair contracted the virus through contact with the show pigs, as some news reports have indicated.

“We can’t speculate,” said Harless on Oct. 23. “What we have (previously) stated is all that we know. An outbreak of 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza occurred in a group of children housed in a dormitory at the fair at the same time samples were collected from the pigs, but no direct link to the pigs has been made. Information available at this time would suggest the children were not sickened by contact with the fair pigs.”

After the confirmation of H1N1 in the show pigs, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack was quick to dispense some damage control for the struggling U.S. pork industry.

“We have fully engaged our trading partners to remind them that several international organizations, including the World Health Organization for Animal Health, have advised that there is no scientific basis to restrict pork and pork products,” Vilsack stated. “Pork is safe to eat.”

The USDA also pointed out that an infection of fair pigs does not suggest the infection of commercial herds because show pigs and commercially raised pigs exist in separate segments of the swine industry that do not usually intersect.

The National Pork Board (NPB) was next to issue a statement, reminding the public that H1N1 is a respiratory virus and not a food-borne illness, and will not be found in pork meat consumed by the public.

“I want to echo the comments of Agriculture Secretary Vilsack,” said Chris Novak, chief executive officer for the NPB. “People cannot get this flu from eating or handling pork.”

The NPPC’s Greiner said H1N1 can spread within a swine herd, but is still no cause for alarm to American consumers.

“They do see that it does move from pig to pig, but it causes a very mild flu in pigs,” Greiner reported, adding that since many animals are susceptible to flu, it isn’t “earth-shattering” news that a pig could acquire the virus.

10/28/2009