No flu virus detected in imported N. American pork: gov't

SEOUL, May 6 (Yonhap) -- No flu virus has been detected in pork shipments imported from North America, a government quarantine service said Wednesday.

The National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service (NVRQS) said it checked
17 separate shipments totaling 255 tons that arrived from the United States,
Canada and Mexico after April 27, when the country effectively took steps to
tighten inspections of meat following the Influenza A outbreak.
Of the total, Mexican and Canadian meat comprised 101 tons and 112 tons,
respectively, with 42 tons coming from the U.S.
The tests were conducted on 500-gram samples taken from each shipment, with
particular care being taken to examine the 21.8 tons of pig intestines that some
experts claimed may have been exposed to the flu virus.
"The detailed tests confirmed there was no shipment contaminated with the virus,"
a spokesperson for the agency under the farm ministry said.
The NVRQS and private experts have on the whole said there is almost no risk of
pork being contaminated with the type-A Influenza H1N1 virus.
This view reflects the stance of the World Health Organization and the World
Organization for Animal Health, which have stressed that pork cannot spread the
flu.
International health authorities said the virus strain that has claimed lives
mostly in Mexico does not come from hogs, but may be a mutation of swine, bird
and human flu viruses.