For months, the conversation swirling around H1N1 was the threat of getting the flu from eating.
That, said Cindy Cunningham of the National Pork Board has never been the case, and more recent news does not change that reality.
The most recent news Cunningham referred to was a confirmation earlier this week of three pigs having been discovered to have H1N1.
The pigs were discovered as part of a research project being conducted as a collaborative effort between the U of M and the University of Iowa.
According to Jeff Bender, of the U of M, who has been part of the project since it began last year, the testing done on the pigs this year was not a reaction to the threat of an H1N1 epidemic.
Rather, the research is part of a study being conducted by the two universities to determine what types of diseases can be and are being transmitted from people to pigs and from pigs to people in a populated area.
Confirmation of H1N1 in the sample from pigs tested at the Minnesota State Fair was confirmed Monday by the USDA.
Once the information was confirmed, work began to ensure the public was still safe as it consumed pork products.
Minnesota Depart-ment of Agriculture Commissioner Gene Hugoson reassured the public one can’t get influenza from eating pork, explaining the flu is a respiratory disease impacting things such as the lungs and trachea, which typically are not being consumed by the public.
“The flu is not in the meat,” said Cunning-ham. “It is not a food-borne disease.”
Despite those assurances, the reality is the nomenclature assign-ed to H1N1, incorrectly called swine flu, has been detrimental to the pork industry.
One only need to walk through the local grocery store to see that impact, as pork prices continue to be well below average.
The price per hundredweight of pork has also dropped significantly, as people are consuming less.
According to statistics from the National Pork Board, hog producers lost more than $42 per head on animals sold in August, with prices a little better, a loss of $37 per head, in September.
Since September 2007, pork producers have lost nearly two-thirds of their equity, and Cunningham said that the losses began long before H1N1.
High prices for corn and soybeans meant higher input costs for producers feeding those commodities to their pigs. The latest issues of H1N1 have only exacerbated what was already a downward trend.
What leaders at the national and state level have been doing lately is damage control – to ensure things don’t get any worse for an al-ready hurting industry.
“We have fully engaged our trading partners to remind them that several international organizations, including the World Health Organization for Animal Health, have advised that there is no scientific basis to restrict trade in pork and pork products, said USDA secretary Tom Vilsack in a recent press release. “People cannot get this flu from eating pork or pork products.
“Pork is safe to eat.”
Export disruptions and higher than ex-pected production has led to an increase of more than 3 percent in the amount of pork in the U.S. market.
Minnesota was the first state in the nation to confirm cases of H1N1 in swine.
According to Bender, many of the pigs at the state fair are terminal, which means they end up going to the locker after the shows.
Biosecurity is be-coming more and more of an issue for livestock producers, and Bender said the recommendation for those who do take their animals home from a public setting such as the state fair should quarantine those animals for a period of time.
For more information on H1N1 and the ag industry, as well as efforts to address the flu, visit the USDA Web site at www.usda.gov.
