Smithfield Foods' CEO has embarked on a series of media interviews in order to prepare investors, the markets and employees for the company's first loss in 30 years.

C. Larry Pope says the effects of misinformation related to H1N1 influenza, coming on the heels of a treacherous 18-month period in the hog and pork industry, means the company will be in the red for its 2009 fiscal year, which ended May 2.

"That is our biggest concern today — the economic impact of people shying away from eating our product out of fear," Pope told the Richmond Times-Dispatch in an interview.

In addition, media reports have linked Smithfield's operations in Mexico to the illness that first was identified in a nearby community. This, although tests have shown that neither humans nor swine at the Smithfield-related facility there have the virus. The company still is waiting for the results of independently conducted, definitive tests on the virus's origin.

Smithfield has been one of the most aggressive players in the campaign to stop referring to the newly discovered virus strain as "swine flu", and to call it "H1N1 flu" instead.

WHO wants reasons

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization is asking countries that have instituted harsh measures in order to combat the spread of H1N1 flu to justify their actions, Agence France Presse reported.

"Countries adopting measures which are significantly different or which interfere with international traffic must provide WHO with the public health rationale and relevant scientific information for these measures," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl is quoted as saying.

He did not specify which countries must answer to WHO, but, for example, Argentina, Cuba, Ecuador, Peru and China all have suspended flights from Mexico. China also has banned imported pork from areas affected by swine flu, including several U.S. states and Canada.

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