Source:  Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 10/16/09

USDA announced late Friday that the agency is conducting "confirmatory" testing for the H1N1 virus on swine samples collected at the 2009 Minnesota State Fair between Aug. 26 and Sept. 1.

If the presence of H1N1 is confirmed in the pigs, it would be the first such case in swine in the United States. There have been a few H1N1 infections reported in swine outside the United States.

USDA said that at the time the samples were collected at the fair, the pigs were apparently healthy.

Although an outbreak of H1N1 influenza occurred in a group of children housed in a dormitory at the fair at the same time samples were collected from the pigs, USDA said that information available so far would suggest the children were not sickened by contact with the pigs.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said again in the USDA news release that the virus cannot be spread by eating pork.

In a statement released shortly after the USDA's announcement, the National Pork Producers' Council repeated the point, and said that "since the H1N1 flu was first reported in late April, NPPC and the National Pork Board have urged pork producers to tighten their existing biosecurity protocols to protect their pigs from the virus, including restricting public access to barns."

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