No pig in the United States has come down with swine flu, but some will by the end of the year in an outbreak expected to slap hog farmers with production losses amid an already difficult year, officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Thursday. The H1N1 virus could be spread to pigs by a sickened person, an ironic twist on fears that wracked the nation earlier this year when "swine flu" had consumers shying away from pork.
Pork from a pig sickened by H1N1 would not pose a health threat to consumers, the officials said. But an outbreak of H1N1 in a farmer's herd would likely cut into profits by slowing the animals' growth, said Kenneth Petersen, an assistant administrator with the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. The $3.9 billion hog industry in Minnesota supports 55,000 jobs, with 7.5 million hogs raised last year on some 4,700 farms, according to the state Department of Agriculture.
U.S. farmers have long used flu vaccines to beat back other flu varieties, with about 58 million doses of vaccine injected into animals last year.
Contrary to popular opinion, the H1N1 flu virus does not come from pigs. The H1N1 virus itself is a combination of avian influenza, human influenza and swine influenza. Early tests of the virus detected only the swine influenza portion.
The USDA said it has contracts with five companies to develop an H1N1 vaccine for hogs. The virus has been found so far in pigs in Australia, Canada and Argentina.
"We're ready," Deputy USDA Secretary Kathleen Merrigan told reporters Thursday morning.
Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune
