A new influenza strain detected in two Saskatchewan hog barn workers is not related to the H1N1 pandemic strain, provincial health and veterinary officials said last week.
The virus, dubbed novel non-pandemic influenza A, has not affected any hogs.
Provincial chief medical health officer Moira McKinnon said the virus is a combination of seasonal human H1N1 and an animal strain.
“The animal strain is one that’s been circulating in North America for several years,” she said.
“I know this is confusing because we’ve got swine flu H1N1, which is now freely transmitting in humans. It’s not that H1N1.”
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The virus is called novel because it has never been seen before. Viruses constantly change and the mix or reassortment of the genes from the two strain created the new virus.
McKinnon said it was detected as part of ongoing surveillance.
Florian Possberg, founder of Big Sky Farms and chair of the new Canadian Swine Health Board, said the two workers at a Big Sky barn in eastern Saskatchewan have recovered and are back at work. The workers fell ill in mid-June.
Both have been in Saskatchewan for about a year and haven’t travelled. A third case is still under investigation.
McKinnon said it’s likely no one else will get sick because many of these viruses do not end up transmitting from human to human. But officials still don’t know how the workers fell ill.
Possberg said he believes this will be a dead-end flu.
“In normal times, that wouldn’t be a story because flu does mutate all the time,” Possberg said. “But because of all the sensitivity around H1N1 and all the news stories and publicity, there’s a lot of sensitivity.”
Saskatchewan chief veterinary officer Greg Douglas said the issue is strictly one of human health. There have been no signs of illness in the herd and the pigs are under constant veterinary care, he said.
The hogs will go to slaughter as they normally would.
The pork is safe to eat, Douglas added, because the inspection system ensures that only healthy animals enter the food system.
“This finding should have no bearing on Canadian pork or pork products trade in the world,” he said.
Heightened surveillance of both humans and hogs has been implemented as a result of the new virus. Biosecurity measures are in effect on the affected operation and all workers have been vaccinated.
Pork industry officials said the discovery of the new virus shouldn’t affect trade.
But Keith Campbell of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said some people will be concerned.
“If it came from pigs, it fuels the fire of people who consider pigs to be a mixing vessel for new strains of flu,” he said at a swine health conference in Saskatoon.
About a dozen countries banned Canadian pork after H1N1 was found on an Alberta hog farm earlier this year.
