Drop the ‘swine’ from flu moniker, urges Ag industry

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This article was published 14/08/2009 (5900 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG – The North American agriculture industry has again called for a ban on the label "swine flu" for the H1N1 influenza virus.

This will be become especially urgent in the fall as the H1NI vaccine begins rolling out, delegates at an international conference in Gimli concluded Friday.

Officials from the U.S., Mexico and Canada attended the three-day Tri-National Agricultural Accord, which ended Friday.

They blamed primarily the media — but also some academics and public health sources — for using the incorrect label "swine flu." The mislabelling has resulted in confusion among consumers and has contributed to the collapse of the pork industry, they said.

"[S]ince we known nothing of how this particular virus has gotten into the human population but there apparently is no history of swine exposure, it probably makes more sense epidemiologically to refer to this simply as the H1N1 virus," the officials said in a joint statement.

Conference delegates heard that health officials have long documented that pork is safe to eat. Yet the continued use of the incorrect term by academics, public health websites and media contributes "to a distorted perception of pork as a source of the disease."

The delegates at the 19th annual confab also looked at agricultural trade issues, country-of-origin-labelling (COOL), harmonization of legislation and regulations, and the threat to food production by climate change.

Manitoba agriculture minister Rosann Wowchuk said in a statement- the meeting made “significant progress on issues of agricultural trade relations and rural development issues.”