May 7, 2009

No flu virus has been detected in pork shipments imported from North America to South Korea, a government quarantine service said Wednesday (May 6).

The National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service (NVRQS) said it checked 17 separate shipments totalling 255 tonnes that arrived from the US, Canada and Mexico after April 27, when the country effectively took steps to tighten inspections of meat following the AH1N1 flu outbreak.

Of the total, Mexican and Canadian meat comprised 101 tonnes and 112 tonnes, respectively, with 42 tonnes coming from the US.

The tests were conducted on 500-gramme samples taken from each shipment, with particular care being taken to examine the 21.8 tonnes of pig intestines that some experts claimed may have been exposed to the flu virus.

The NVRQS and private experts have on the whole said there is almost no risk of pork being contaminated with the AH1N1 flu virus.

This view reflects the stance of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), which have stressed that pork cannot spread the flu.

International health authorities said the virus strain that has claimed lives mostly in Mexico does not come from hogs, but may be a mutation of swine, bird and human flu viruses.