Pork producers have become "collateral damage" in the early days of the swine flu, suffering an export backlash that is not based on science, says the president of the Canadian Pork Council.
Jurgen Preugschas says Canadian pork producers are suffering from a perceived issue with pork safety that seems to be based on the swine flu nomenclature, as opposed to proven scientific facts.
"This is a human health issue, it is not a food safety issue," Preugschas told CTV's Canada AM on Thursday. "That's why were saying it's unfortunate how the virus has been named, because in actual fact, it has as yet not been found in swine at all. It's only been a human virus.
"We're collateral damage on this and we need to reassure people that eating pork, there's no danger of getting it there," he added.
Canadian pig farmers depend largely on their ability to trade with their NAFTA partners, Preugschas said, and any slowdown in pork exports will hurt their business.
"We have free access to the American market and the Mexican markets, all without tariffs," he said.
He said Canadian pig farmers typically export some 10 million pigs to the U.S. each year, which accounts for about one-third of all production.
Preugschas said he and his fellow pork producers have already seen a number of major export markets -- including Russia and China -- close their doors to North American pork products on account of the worldwide swine flu outbreak.
"We do hope that they will realize, over time, that that's an error and open the borders up again to our product," Preugschas said.
Other countries have taken an even harder line against pork products, such as Egypt, which announced Wednesday that it would slaughter all pigs within its borders.
But the very same day, Dr. Keiji Fukuda of the World Health Organization, said there is no evidence to suggest people are getting sick from contact with pigs, nor from eating pork products.
Fukuda, who updated media on behalf of the WHO on Wednesday, said initial research has indicated that the swine flu was originally a "new swine influenza virus, but it is now behaving more or less like a human influenza virus with transmission going from person to person."
The Canadian Pork Council has supported a proposal by the World Organization for Animal Health to change the swine flu name to "North American influenza," to better reflect the nature of the virus, and it has written to Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq for her support.
But Preugschas said pork farmers do need to take great care to ensure that their livestock does not come into contact with infected human persons carrying swine flu in the weeks and months to come.
"We need to heighten our bio-security protocols, we have to ensure not to let people into our barns that possibly might be carrying this virus and that they give it to our animals," he said.
