Top government officials have been accused of misleading the public amid the growing fear of a swine flu pandemic reaching Indonesia, including by linking the disease to the consumption of pork.

Sri Mukartini, head of the animal food product division at the farming directorate general of the Ministry of Agriculture, said Thursday people who did not eat pork were not necessarily safe from the H1N1 virus, and those who ate pork were no more susceptible than those who did not.

“The disease is not food borne,” she said. “The H1N1 virus does not stay in the muscle tissue of the animal but in the respiratory tracts.”

Thus, pork does not carry the H1N1 virus in the swine flu disease, except if the respiratory tracts of the pig are still intact with the meat, or perhaps if the pig passed on respiratory particles.

Salmonella, E. coli bacteria and toxoplasma are examples of food borne diseases.

The OIE, the Paris-based world organization for animal health, released a statement Thursday saying that the scientific information currently available indicated that the novel A/H1N1 influenza virus could be transmitted amongst humans.

There was no evidence of infection in pigs, nor of humans acquiring infection directly from pigs, the release said.

“It is not simply a swine influenza virus, and it is important to note that swine influenza has not been shown to be transmissible to people through eating pig meat or other products derived from pigs,” the release said.

Still, the government has taken some precautions, such as stopping imports of pork and by tightening safety measures on pig farms.

Agus Wiyono, the official in charge of the livestock health directorate at the Ministry of Agriculture, said the country’s seven regional labs were currently testing samples taken randomly from pig farm centers.

The labs are in the cities of Medan, Bukit tinggi, Lampung, Wates, Denpasar, Maros, and Banjarbaru.

“By the end of the week we hope all samples will have come in, and then it will take another week for examination,” Agus said.

He said with a pig population of seven million - the minister of health said recently it was nine million - it would not take long for them to conduct a random sample.

The country produced more than 235,500 tons of pork in 2008, with Bali and North Sumatra the main producing provinces.

Data from the Ministry of Agriculture showed that the country imported about 240,000 tons of pork in 2008, with 164,000 tons alone going to Jakarta. This year, no pork has been imported, although proposals for import permits for the first three months were requested by several companies.

It is possible that the imported meat currently on display in supermarkets was from 2008’s supply.

“Frozen meat can stand a year stored in a freezer, but our regulations require distributors keep it for no more than 6 months,” Sri said.

Bagus Poermadjaja, head of animal disease surveillance division at the ministry, said, “We also monitor the traffic of livestock between farms and slaughterhouses.”

Bagoes said the teams overseeing avian flu control were now also tackling the prevention of H1N1 virus. (iwp)

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