Canadian pigs infected, likely by farmhand
OTTAWA – Pigs on a Canadian farm have been infected with the new swine flu virus – apparently by a farm worker back from Mexico – and are under quarantine, officials said Saturday. It is the first known case of pigs having the virus.
But officials quickly urged caution. Swine flu regularly causes outbreaks in pigs and the pigs do not pose a food safety risk, Dr. Brian Evans, executive vice president with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, told a news conference.
The officials said the pigs in the province of Alberta were thought to be infected by a Canadian farm worker who recently visited Mexico and got sick after returning to Canada.
The traveler has recovered, and the estimated 200 sickened pigs are recovering as well, officials said. No pigs have died, and officials said they don’t think the flu has spread beyond the farm.
Normally, detecting influenza in pigs would not generate a response from food safety officials, but the current circumstances are different with the international flu outbreak, Evans said.
“The chance that these pigs could transfer virus to a person is remote,” he said, adding that he would have no issue eating pork from the infected pigs.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Canada has taken the necessary precautions to prevent the spread of the disease. He said there have been no reports of the virus in U.S. pigs and noted the sick Canadian swine have been quarantined.
“This detection does not change the situation here in the United States,” he said.
The World Health Organization has insisted there is no evidence that pigs are passing the virus to humans, or that eating pork products poses an infection risk.
The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture and World Health Organization, along with the WTO and the World Organization for Animal Health, issued a joint statement Saturday saying there’s no justification for any anti-pork trade measures as a result of the swine flu epidemic since there is no evidence the virus is spread by food.
The statement was the most emphatic yet from the United Nations and other agencies on the issue.