Page 7 of articles about influenza in Swine news

The Emergency Committee, established in compliance with the International Health Regulations (2005), held its second meeting on 27 April 2009. The WHO Director-General has raised the level of influenza pandemic alert from the current phase 3 to phase 4.

German pig futures prices fell by around 3.5 percent on Monday because of fears that bad publicity about swine fever will cut pork consumption, traders said.

Any current information in influenza like animal disease in Mexico or the USA could support a link between human cases and possible animal cases including swine. The virus has not been isolated in animals to date. Therefore, it is not justified to name this disease swine influenza. In the past, many human influenza epidemics with animal origin have been named using their geographic name, eg Spanish influenza or Asiatic influenza, thus it would be logical to call this disease “North-American influenza”.

The Australian Veterinary Association says the international swine flu outbreaks not a threat to Australian pigs and that eating pork poses no human health risk. The AVA is not concerned about an outbreak among pigs here in Australia.

The National Pork Producers Council and the National Pork Board are urging all pork producers to take steps to prevent their pigs from contracting swine influenza.

The Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg has confirmed four cases of A, H1N1 swine flu from Nova Scotia. The British Columbia Centre for Disease Control identified two additional cases from British Columbia. All six cases are same strain of human swine influenza that has been found in the U.S. and Mexico. These first cases were detected as a result of the increased surveillance the federal government initiated with the provinces and territories and health professionals given concerns over the spread of swine flu in Mexico and the United States.

As of 26 April 2009, the United States Government has reported 20 laboratory confirmed human cases of swine influenza A/H1N1 and the Government of Mexico has reported 18 laboratory confirmed cases of swine influenza A/H1N1.

A rare outbreak of human swine flu has killed at least 60 people in Mexico and spread to the United States where authorities are on alert, the World Health Organisation said on Friday.