Two slaughtered pigs have been found to have the human swine flu (H1N1) virus.However, experts including Hong Kong's health chief say well-cooked pork is safe to eat and the public should not worry.
The two positive samples, taken during routine testing at Sheung Shui slaughterhouse on October 22, mark the first such detection for the city. The pigs are believed to have been infected by people.
"There is no cause for the public to be overly concerned," Secretary for Food and Health York Chow Yat-ngok said yesterday while announcing the findings of the tests, which were carried out by the University of Hong Kong.
"Human swine flu virus is killed by a temperature of 70 degrees Celsius or above. It is safe for the public to eat pork and pork products that are handled properly and cooked thoroughly."
Chow's words were echoed by Centre for Health Protection controller Thomas Tsang Ho-fai.
"In terms of food safety, there is very little bearing," Tsang said, explaining that pork will not cause illness if well- prepared and cooked properly.
World-renowned flu expert Malik Peiris, who is also HKU professor of microbiology, said the test results show human swine flu can be transmitted to pigs but the virus is limited to the respiratory tract.
"It does not spread beyond that."
He said pork will not contain the virus and there is no reason to call for the mass culling of pigs. But he did call for increased monitoring of the animals.
"We have no way to identif
y whether the particular pig that tested positive came from Hong Kong or the mainland," he added."We have been doing surveillance for the past 10 years and this is the first time we found this particular pandemic virus in pigs.
"There are many thousands of humans who have been infected and so it's not surprising that the virus will infect pigs.
"And also we know that the origin of the pandemic virus [this year] was pigs [in Mexico]."
Calling for even tighter surveillance, Peiris said: "If people working with pigs have flu-like illness they should not be working with pigs. It is just like the general recommendation - if you have a flu- like illness stay at home.
"This also highlights the importance of biosecurity precautions in pig farms and pig abattoirs to protect the workers."
HKU virologists and other experts overseas expect that the pandemic virus will retain the capacity to go back to pigs.
Nine countries have documented infected pigs including the United States, Canada, Argentina, Australia, Norway and Iceland.
Taiwan has also for the first time confirmed H1N1 transfer from humans to pigs. About 160 five-week-old piglets in a farm in Taidong displayed flu symptoms such as coughing and diarrhea late last month.
Meanwhile, vets in the US state of Iowa said a household cat has tested positive for swine flu - the first known case in the world of the new pandemic strain spreading to felines.
