US swine farmers intensify biosecurity measures for swine flu

Seeing their pork products banned in some countries, pig farmers in the United States are taking every precaution to ensure the nation's livestock are safe from swine flu.

 

Workers are now required to shower as they enter and exit pig farms, change their shoes and clothing once they arrive and wear face masks to ensure that no illnesses are spread there.

 

Visitors are now being asked to stay away from farms and anyone who has recently visited Mexico, the source of the outbreak, is being kept out under a strict quarantine.

 

"We feel very comfortable as far as our biosecurity goes," Dr. Howard Hill, a veterinarian and COO of Iowa Select Farms, one of the nation's largest pork farmers and producers.

 

"We have biosecurity programmes in place that are there every single day, not just when an emergency occurs. All of our facilities are 'shower in/shower out' facilities ... and we have a policy if anybody's sick they can't enter the farm."

 

Dr Howard Hill, veterinarian and COO of Iowa Select Farms--one of the nation's biggest pork farmers and producers--said they have stepped up education for employees and oversight of their operations. Pig farmers are now constantly monitoring the health of their stock, he said, and send in tissue samples to a national laboratory to track any illnesses that pop up.

 

Though swine flu hasn't hit US pigs, pig farmers and some health experts object to the name and say it should be changed to reflect its absence in the swine population, according to Agriculture Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

 

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano referred to it as the N1H1 virus, its scientific classification.

 

But this however did not cease to wreak havoc on US swine industry.

 

As of Tuesday, more than 10 countries had placed restricted bans on pork from the US, marking a good damage to the industry which exports nearly US$5 billion of products each year.

 

The national Centres for Disease Control and Prevention have also made clear that swine flu is travelling from person to person -- not from plate to plate.

 

"You cannot get swine influenza from eating pork or pork products," the CDC wrote on its Web site, noting that "eating properly handled and cooked pork and pork products are safe."

 

However, pork futures continue to fall, adding fears that the health scare might continue through the summer.

 

The pork industry, for its part, is hoping that any offsets will prove temporary.

 

Hill said summer markets are usually better for the industry and that trade players are hoping that it is just a short-term decline in the market, adding that "with all the precautions that are being taken right now I doubt very seriously whether [the flu will] ever surface in the swine population -- at least in the United States."