News

USDA testing H1N1 presumptive positive pigs in U.S.

U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says the National Veterinary Services Laboratories will conduct confirmatory tests on swine samples collected at the 2009 Minnesota State Fair between August 26 and September 1.

Officials discovered what’s referred to as a presumptive positive on the samples drawn at the fair, although the news release says the pigs sampled showed no signs of illness and were apparently healthy.

National Pork Board Science and Technology Vice-President Dr. Paul Sundberg says like people, pigs occasionally get the flu, but this is the first report of a possible occurrence of H1N1 in U.S. swine. He stresses, however, that the virus has no effect on meat.

“Research shows us, and it’s been corroborated from labs across the world, that you cannot get H1N1 influenza virus from eating or handling pork or pork products,” Sundberg told Brownfield Friday.

USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories expects to have confirmatory results within the next few days. Even if the positive diagnosis is confirmed, Dr. Sundberg says it’s a production issue.

“Even though it does hurt the production, the basis and the sound tenant is that when pigs get this virus, it’s respiratory only; it’s not in the meat, it’s not in organs,” said Sundberg. “They recover and once they recover they go on through production.”

Sundberg says the greatest care to be taken is to prevent transmission, just as efforts are being made to prevent transmission from person to person. USDA encourages commercial pork producers to intensify biosecurity practices, particularly during this flu season.

More information about USDA’s 2009 pandemic H1N1 efforts is available at www.usda.gov/H1N1flu.