Gov't will not overreact to swine flu scare: official

SEOUL, April 29 (Yonhap) -- will not overreact to the current swine flu outbreak for fear it could further hurt local pig farms and restaurants, a senior government official said Wednesday.

Food and agriculture minister Chang Tae-pyong told reporters that Seoul is taking
all necessary steps to guard against the spread of the disease in the country in
accordance with clearly proven scientific facts about risks associated with the
virus.
"Seoul has taken swift and concrete steps to deal with the outbreak, but it must
not take any action that can cause unwarranted social fear," he said, adding that
public concerns may be causing pork consumption to decrease, posing problems for
farmers and the service sector.
He stressed that experts were in agreement that the disease could not be
transmitted through the consumption of meat, while concerns about pig intestines
being a threat were unfounded.
Chang added that while the risk of live pigs passing on the virulent strain of
the flu was remote, Seoul took steps to temporarily ban imports to allay public
concerns. The move will bar live pig imports from Canada, the United States and
Mexico.
The official, however, made clear that unless there was concrete evidence to
indicate that pork could pass on the disease to humans, the government will take
no steps to halt imports.
Countries like Russia, China and Indonesia had announced that they would not
import pork from North America following reported deaths over the weekend.
"Stepped up monitoring and testing of imported meat should be sufficient to deal
with concerns," he said, adding other countries in Europe and Japan took no
action to block pork trade.
The minister also said that a system will be introduced that can permit
inspectors to systematically check 10 percent of the 7,700 pig farms in the
country on a regular basis to detect any infected animals.
He said experts are to take particular care to check for the mutated strain of
the H1N1 virus that the World Heath Organization blames for over 150 deaths in
Mexico.
The minister, meanwhile, said that while deaths have been reported abroad,
treatment with existing anti-viral drugs seems to be working with the one
suspected case found in the country responding well to Tamiflu.
"South Korea has a well established standard operating procedure to deal with
both animal and human outbreaks so there is no need to be overly concerned," he
said.