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With cold and flu season right around the corner, the West Virginia Department of Agriculture is advising swine producers to take care not to pass the H1N1 virus to their animals. Although humans cannot contract H1N1 by eating pork, they can pass the disease to pigs.

“Although H1N1 vaccine trials have begun on humans, work on an animal vaccine is not progressing as quickly,” said West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture Gus R. Douglass. “Farmers will need to adhere to stringent biosecurity safeguards to keep their animals healthy.”

Steps farmers can take include minimizing visitors to the farm, prohibiting sick humans from coming into contact with pigs, and getting an H1N1 vaccine themselves when it becomes available. Swine showing signs of disease should be segregated from other animals.

“Swine spend just about their entire lives on the same farm. Humans, on the other hand, travel widely and are exposed to numerous people from different places. Although H1N1 has been called swine flu, it’s really a human disease that can be spread to pigs,” said Commissioner Douglass.

Commissioner Douglass added that hunters do not have to fear H1N1 in wild boar.
“There has been no indication of H1N1 in wildlife, or domestic hogs for that matter, and there’s no danger from cooked pork,” he said.

The wild boar archery season runs from October 17-December 31 and the firearms season runs from October 24-31. Boar hunting is limited to Boone, Logan, Raleigh and Wyoming Counties.

The West Virginia Department of Agriculture protects plant, animal and human health through a variety of scientific, regulatory and consumer protection programs, as mandated by state law. The Commissioner of Agriculture is one of six statewide elected officials in West Virginia. Currently, Commissioner Gus R. Douglass is the longest-serving agriculture commissioner in the nation. For more information, visit www.wvagriculture.org.

“The Basis of All Wealth is Agriculture.”

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