Fears of a worldwide pandemic increased earlier this week as the World Health Organization raised its pandemic alert to Level 4 following reports from Mexico that as many as 149 people had been killed by swine flu.
Level 6 is considered a full blown pandemic.
Six mild cases had been reported in Canada as of April 27.
The situation has prairie hog producers bracing for the fallout even though spread of the disease has nothing to do with swine.
While hog producers sympathize with the families of victims and those sick with the disease, they hope to avoid being wrongfully blamed. The disease has nothing to do with any hog in Canada or the United States.
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They fear that foreign protectionists will use the disease as an excuse to block Canadian pork exports.
“The big concern is how the world’s reacting to it,” said Karl Kynoch, the farmer-chair of Manitoba Pork Council, noting that Russia and China quickly restricted imports from Mexico and parts of the United States.
“It’s because it’s called the swine flu and people are connecting it to the industry. It’s really hurting producers.”
Medical officials believe this particular strain of influenza may have been present in Mexico for months, but has only recently been identified and isolated.
It has now been found in sick people in a number of countries, including Canada, the United States and Spain.
The quick spread of the disease has medical officials describing it as highly contagious, although by April 27 it had not killed anybody in Canada.
“Simply because we’re seeing mild symptoms so far does not mean we can take this for granted,” Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada’s chief public health officer said in news conference.
“We will likely see more cases. We will likely see more severe illnesses. And we will likely, unfortunately, see some deaths as well. We hope not, but that is a normal part of an influenza outbreak of any type.”
The disease is commonly referred to as swine flu, but its present incarnation is as a human-to-human pathogen.
Early analysis suggests that it may have had some early history in pigs and fowl, but there is no evidence that it is continuing to emerge from animals to infect humans, health officials say. It has not been found in any animal.
While the outbreak is spreading from person to person, the hog industry and the wider farming and food industries are already suffering from their association in many people’s minds with the disease.
Lean hog futures were limit-down on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange April 27 and a number of meat and food company shares were taking a beating.
Crop futures prices fell, as did oil, as flu fear caused many to speculate that demand would drop and economic problems intensify because of the outbreak.
Of most concern to prairie pig producers is the potential of trade barriers being erected to Canadian hogs. Canada exports a large proportion of the nation’s production, but that makes it vulnerable to disease fears that shut down trade.
“There’s a lot of concern that this is a reason to restrict world pork trade,” said Canadian Pork Council executive director Martin Rice.
“Importers are worried that this is a swine-related thing, that pork meat is a concern. We’re going to have to repeat it wherever we can that this is not an animal health issue, it’s a human health issue, and it’s not being carried in meat.”
Canadian Federation of Agriculture president and Quebec hog farmer Laurent Pellerin said the underlying point about the safety of pork and the fact it is not connected to this outbreak may not be understood by many people.
“It’s never a good thing to have your industry associated with something like this that not everyone understands.”
University of Missouri hog market analyst Ron Plain said world pork trade can become vulnerable to overreactions to perceived risks, especially when governments benefit from that overreation.
“Politically it can seem wise to throw up trade barriers to protect the people.”
A secondary impact on Canada’s agriculture industries is the slightly tightened restrictions on Mexican farm workers.
The government announced April 27 that Mexican workers who come to Canada for temporary work will now be screened by two doctors before they leave their country, and Canadian officials are heading to Mexico to help this new restriction occur without snarling the flow of workers.
While hundreds of Mexicans work in Western Canadian meat plants and on farms, there are many more in the east.
