Released April 28, 2009
COLUMBIA, S. C. — Clemson Livestock and Poultry Health officials are monitoring the ongoing swine flu — officially influenza A (H1N1) — situation closely and taking appropriate steps to help protect animal and human health.
This is not an animal disease outbreak. It's safe to eat pork cooked properly. Swine production operations currently do not pose a flu threat to public health. For more information, see the Clemson Livestock Poultry influenza A Web site at http://www.clemson.edu/public/lph/ahp/influenzaa.html.
Preliminary investigations indicate that in all cases there was no contact with swine. The swine influenza subtype isolated from these cases is unique and not previously recognized in either pigs or people.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "This virus is different, very different, from that found in pigs." At this time there is no evidence that this swine influenza subtype is present in pigs in the United States. Because of the lack of actual swine involvement, ProMed Mail, a communication tool of the International Society of Infectious Disease, has elected to remove the alias "swine flu" from its communications on this outbreak.
The livestock industry, while not directly affected, is ready to respond. U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, in making a public health emergency declaration, made the analogy to a hurricane in which preparations are made for the emergency even before it is known where the hurricane will make landfall. It is prudent for those who are safely out of the path of this hurricane to use the event to take stock of their own preparedness. As for the flu outbreak, planning, preparation and watchful waiting are the appropriate responses for now.
Avian flu and swine flu can escape into the human population from time to time, which is why the livestock and poultry industries have active programs to control these diseases in animals. Now is a good time for livestock and poultry producers to review biosecurity practices to help in the unlikely event this H1N1 flu should threaten to jump to the swine population.
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http://www.clemson.edu/newsroom/articles/2009/april/swine_flu.php5
Contacts: Dr. Michael K. Martin, 803-788-2260, ext. 230, mmarti5@clemson.edu
Peter Kent, 864-656-4355, pkent@clemson.edu
