New Zealand-Damage to the pork industry.

NEW ZEALAND-MISINFORMATION and fear surrounding the swine influenza could lead to consumers snubbing pork products, leaving the industry to suffer and farmers out of pocket.

Chris Trengrove, chairman of NZ Pork, said it was important consumers were educated on the real properties of the flu and were not put off eating pork.

Unlike the swine influenza’s pandemic predecessor, the bird flu, which could be contracted through the consumption of infected poultry, swine flu is not spread through eating pig meat.

Mr Trengrove said swine flu in pigs was like an ordinary human flu – the pigs were crook but it wasn’t fatal.

The confusion lies in the fact that the current swine flu epidemic affecting humans is not the same virus which traditionally makes pigs unwell.

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) has issued a statement that said it was not correct to call the current disease ’swine influenza’ at all.

OIE said the circulating virus included the genetic components of human, avian and swine flu.

They proposed changing the virus’ name to its place of origin, and calling it ’North American influenza’. This was the naming approach used with the Asian and Spanish influenza outbreaks.

Both the World Health Organisation and NZPork issued statements that said people would not contract the illness through consuming well cooked pig meat and pig meat products.

Russia and China, both big pork importers, have already banned imports of pig meat from Mexico and some North American states.

Sales appeared to have been affected in Thailand. On April 28, the Bangkok Post online reported that an outbreak of the deadly swine flu would inevitably affect Thailand’s 70 billion baht (approximately $NZ 51 million) pork industry.

The Thai paper said consumer demand for pork in Thailand dropped significantly after the swine flu outbreak in Mexico.

In Phichit’s Muang district, more than 20 pork stalls at a downtown market were quiet on the Sunday after the international outbreak, the paper reported.

However the Bangkok Post also attributed this to high pork prices there.

Luckily for the New Zealand industry, Mr Trengrove said New Zealanders were reasonably well informed and so far there had been no appreciable downturn in sales.

The greatest risk was, ironically, that humans could infect New Zealand’s currently swine flu-free pork industry with the virus.

It may not be fatal but it would be detrimental to pig farmers if their stock contracted it.

"It’s something we don’t want to deal with," Mr Trengrove said.

The symptoms in pigs are sudden offset of fever, depression, coughing (barking), discharge from the nose or eyes, sneezing, breathing difficulties, eye redness or inflammation, and loss of appetite.

He advised farmers not to let people with flu symptoms, or people who have recently came back from overseas, go near pigs.

PorkNZ also reminded farmers to be vigilant with biosecurity, disinfecting and cleaning procedures, and to contact veterinarians immediately if they noticed unusual pig health issues.

The swine flu scare came on the back of a MAF Biosecurity decision to look at lowering pH levels on cooked pig meat imports from countries infected with Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS).

PRRS, which is often compared to HIV in humans, causes sows to abort and piglets to die slow and agonising deaths, and can kill up to 70 per cent of piglets, and more at weaning.

Both PorkNZ and Federated Farmers spoke out against this decision saying it would jeopardise the industry.

The PorkNZ industry chairman said the swine flu scare reaffirmed how important it was for New Zealand to have high biosecurity standards.

"Agriculture is just so important to this country," he said.