Source  Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 10/19/09

USDA announced Monday that the presence of H1N1 influenza virus was confirmed in pigs that had been at the Minnesota State Fair over the summer. 

"We have fully engaged our trading partners to remind them that several international organizations, including the World Organization for Animal Health, have advised that there is no scientific basis to restrict trade in pork and pork products," USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement. "People cannot get this flu from eating pork or pork products. Pork is safe to eat."

The samples collected at the 2009 Minnesota State Fair were part of a University of Iowa and University of Minnesota cooperative agreement research project funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which documents influenza viruses where humans and pigs interact, such as at fairs.

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.

To date, there have been no reports of humans contracting H1N1 from swine or any other animal. Rather, concern has centered around protecting swine from contracting the virus from humans. To that end, in June USDA made the H1N1 master seed virus available to veterinary biologics manufacturers to speed development of a vaccine for swine. 

An infection in pigs at the fair does not suggest infection of commercial herds, USDA said, because show pigs and commercially raised pigs are in separate segments of the swine industry that do not typically interchange personnel or animal stock.

J. Patrick Boyle, CEO of the American Meat Institute in Washington, D.C., released a statement on Monday, saying, "The U.S. Department of Agriculture's … confirmation that pigs screened at the 2009 Minnesota State Fair between August 26 and September 1 were positive novel H1N1 is not unexpected."

Additional samples also are being tested.

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