Because people and pigs can pass flu viruses to each other, the pork board and the National Pork Producers Council said pigs and barn workers should be vaccinated for seasonal flus, and sick employees should stay away from barns. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - US pork groups have issued specific precautions about swine flu after an unusual new strain of influenza killed at least 81 people in Mexico and popped up in the United States and, possibly, Britain and New Zealand.
Although it is called 'swine flu' there is no evidence that any of the cases stemmed from contact with pigs, said Liz Wagstrom, a veterinarian who works on public health issues for the US National Pork Board.
GENEVA - PEOPLE are not at risk of being infected with swine flu through exposure to pork, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Sunday.
'Right now we have no evidence to suggest that people are getting infected from exposure to pork or to pigs so right now we have zero evidence that exposure to meat leads to infection,' Keiji Fukuda, acting WHO director-general for health security and environment, told a teleconference.
Pigs can catch human and avian flus, so are thought to be a so-called mixing vessel for the viruses - a host in which viruses can swap genes, creating new strains.
Last year, the US Agriculture Department and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention began work on a formal surveillance project for swine flu - a project that began collecting samples last week, Ms Wagstrom said.
'As far as we know, it's never been seen in pigs worldwide,' Ms Wagstrom said in an interview.
But because people and pigs can pass flu viruses to each other, the pork board and the National Pork Producers Council said pigs and barn workers should be vaccinated for seasonal flus, and sick employees should stay away from barns.
Farmers should also restrict visitors from barns, especially people who have recently been in Mexico, Wagstrom said, and maintain 'biosecurity' measures like keeping birds out of barns and ensuring water is treated.
Swine flu, first found in 1930, causes fever and coughing in pigs, but is not usually severe enough to kill them. The virus is common in US barns, so farmers routinely vaccinate herds.
In the United States, there have been 12 cases since 2005 in which humans caught swine flu after being in contact with pigs, Ms Wagstrom said. 'It's very uncommon to see it spread from pigs to people,' she said.
But as concerns have grown about flu pandemics, and US officials increased the number of labs able to test and type flu viruses, officials have also begun to pay closer attention to swine flu, Ms Wagstrom said. -- REUTERS
