January 9, 2012

New flu virus affects US pork sales, exports

US agricultural producers are on alert on a new flu virus thought to have originated in pigs two years after a swine flu pandemic caused sales to drop and disrupted its pork exports.

The strain has been detected in Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention based in Atlanta. Of the 12 infected, 11 are children, and at least six reported no recent exposure to pigs. That suggests "limited human-to human transmission," according to the CDC. Three of those who were infected were hospitalised.
 

The virus might not become as prevalent as the 2009 variant, known as H1N1, which led to as many as 89 million cases and 18,300 deaths in the US in the first flu pandemic in more than 40 years, according to the CDC. Still, livestock producers are concerned that consumers might fear that they can get a potentially lethal disease from eating pork. Flu is transmitted through droplets of infected body fluids when people cough, sneeze or talk. "It's always something that we need to keep an eye on, that it doesn't get more severe or spread more quickly," said Liz Wagstrom, chief veterinarian with the National Pork Producers Council. "It's very important the public understand you can't get flu from eating pork."

Federal agencies are not referring to the new strain as swine flu, mindful of the popular description of H1N1 that upset markets and producers. Such illnesses contain a genetic mix of viruses seen in pigs, birds and people, and get the moniker because the overall structure is the type that affects pigs. The H1N1 strain contained genetic material from five flu viruses, including North American swine and bird flu and two swine flu viruses found in Europe and Asia. During the H1N1 pandemic, China and Russia closed their markets to US pork and industry revenue was estimated to have fallen by nearly US$2.2 billion in the last eight months of 2009, according to the pork council.