3 pigs at State Fair may have had H1N1, tests by the U, CDC show

Three pigs on exhibit at the Minnesota State Fair's swine barn this year may have had H1N1, researchers said Friday afternoon, potentially marking the first time that the pandemic flu has been found in U.S. hogs.

It's not clear what became of the pigs -- they may have been slaughtered after the fair and sent into the food chain -- but health officials downplayed any dangers from the sick pigs.

"This is a people virus," said Jeff Bender, co-director of the University of Minnesota Center for Animal Health and Food Safety. "A person cannot get flu from eating pork, or pork products."

Still, the timing couldn't be worse for the pork industry, which has struggled this year to make a profit. As news broke Friday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were conducting tests, the National Pork Producers issued an e-mail reiterating that pork is safe to eat.

Minnesota's $3.9 billion hog industry supports 55,000 jobs, with some 4,700 farms raising 7.5 million hogs last year.

The suspect pigs were discovered by researchers carrying out a CDC project studying the spread of flu viruses at places where people and pigs come into close contact -- such as state fairs. The pigs, from three separate farms, appeared healthy at the time samples were taken, but preliminary tests at the U of M this week found evidence that they might have had H1N1.

Further tests at the CDC are underway, and investigators expect results in a few days.

It's not clear how the pigs could have contracted H1N1, but a group of young people staying at a dormitory at the State Fair were sickened with the illness at the same time researchers were collecting samples. Fair officials sent a few hundred students from the 4-H program home before the fair's end when at least four of them tested positive for H1N1.

Joni Scheftel, a veterinarian with the state Health Department, said the 4-H'ers -- or any of the 1.8 million fair visitors -- may have spread the illness among the pigs.

"There's no real evidence that the virus was circulating among the pigs," Scheftel said.

Some evidence exists that a flu virus mutates as it passes from one species to another, a prospect that alarms health officials.

"We always do worry about that with pigs, but there's no evidence that it's occurred or that there's a change in the virus," Scheftel said.

Concerned that H1N1 would eventually appear on a hog farm somewhere in the United States, federal officials this summer contracted with at least five companies to develop an H1N1 vaccine for hogs. The vaccine is not yet available. The virus has been found in pigs in Ireland, Great Britain, Canada, Norway and Argentina.

Farmers frequently vaccinate hogs for flu varieties, with about 58 million doses of vaccine injected into animals last year.

Matt McKinney • 612-673-7329