July 22, 2009

Authorities in Argentina has announced a national animal health alert as the influenza AH1N1 virus had been detected on a second pig farm in the Buenos Aires province.

Jorge Dillo, director of Senasa, the service for animal health and food safety in Argentina, tells to Reuters that a state of alert doesn't mean there's high risk but the virus could appear in another farm.

The virus has pretty mild symptoms in pigs, hence, poses no risk to public health, declares Dillon.

Argentine authorities assume that the contamination at the pig farms has happened through workers. It is likely therefore that this is the second man-to-pig transmission of the novel AH1N1 virus, after a case in Alberta, Canada, a couple of months ago.

Canadian health officials said a traveller carried the new virus from Mexico to Canada, possibly infecting his family and a herd of swine in May, but tests later showed the man was not the source of infection.

However, they did not rule out the possibility the virus could still have been transmitted into the herd by a person.

Authorities in Argentina also approved measure that would allow health services to carry out tests at pig farms and slaughterhouses to quicker detect future contaminations.

The flu strain has killed 137 people in the South American country during the Southern Hemisphere winter and the government has closed schools and urged Argentines to avoid crowded places to halt its spread.

The country hardly exports any pork.