Final test results on hogs from the Olymel L.P. plant in Red Deer, Alberta, will be available soon, Gravelle said. FMD is one of the most contagious livestock diseases and can have high mortality rates in young animals, according to the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health.

 

''We are still investigating the animal-health situation'', said Gravelle. ''Preliminary test results are showing no indication of the presence of a reportable animal disease there, which would include foot and mouth.''

 

FMD was last reported in Canada in 1952 and in US in 1929, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). The disease has spread in Asia in recent months, spurring Japan to cull more than 158,000 animals. Japan is the second-largest importer of Canadian pork and the largest buyer of the meat from the US.

 

''There have been no indications of a human-health risk'', Gravelle said.

 

Richard Vigneault, a spokesman for privately held Olymel in Montreal, said that the CFIA began investigating the Red Deer plant on Monday (June 21). He said the company is cooperating with CFIA inspectors.

 

Gary Stordy, a spokesman for the Canadian Pork Council in Ottawa, said that the plant shutdown may have been a routine precaution after one or more animals caught the attention of government inspectors.

 

''We are an industry that has dealt with H1N1 recently, and everyone is really sensitive,'' Stordy said, referring to a recent strain of swine flu. ''What is taking place at the Red Deer plant could just very well be a normal procedure. The fact is, the inspectors had some questions about one animal or a few animals, and are following procedures. It's just another demonstration of them doing their jobs.''

 

The Olymel plant is one of Canada's two largest pork-processing operations, along with a Maple Leaf Foods Inc. facility in Brandon, Manitoba, said Darcy Fitzgerald, the executive director of Alberta Pork, an Edmonton-based producer group. Olymel's Red Deer plant processes about 45,000 hogs a week, he said.