COLUMBIA -- As the swine flu pandemic grows, KRCG News has heard from several concerned viewers wondering whether pork is safe to eat.
The answer is yes, according to officials with the Centers for Disease Control, who say pork is perfectly safe to handle and eat.
Swine flu is spread through human to human contact, whcih the Missouri Pork Association says not everyone understands. As a result, the outbreak has hurt pork sales, even prompting some countries to block pork from the US.
"We're plenty confident that consumers will regain their confidence and will begin buying pork again," said Diance Slator, with the Missouri Pork Association. "And that our export markets will open back up once all the details come out."
Pork futures - the industry's pricing mechanism - have fallen by 20 percent since the virus made headlines. People in the pork industry are working to get this flu virus identified by its clinical name, the N1H1 virus.
"The term 'swine influenza' really is misleading to the public mainly because this virus has not been isolated from pigs,” said Beth young with MU's Commercial Agriculture Program. “It hasn't been found in pigs in Mexico or in the United States, or anywhere in the world for that matter. It's only been isolated and identified in people."
Confusion over Swine flu has prompted authorities in Egypt to slaughter hundreds of thousands of pigs.
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