A porky we could do without

YOU can’t get it from eating pig meat, it had never been seen before in pigs ... but scientists called it swine flu.

Last April, a hybrid of two flu viruses that circulate in pigs, was first identified by influenza experts at the US Centres for Disease Control.

Based on molecular analysis of its genes, they declared the new virus was a form of swine flu.

Within days, it was simply “swine flu”.

The title, as far as the worldwide pork industry is concerned, is yet another Frankenstein-like monster let loose from the laboratories.

Perhaps Egyptian pig farmers have been hit hardest by this misnomer. The country’s estimated 300,000 pigs were slaughtered, reputedly to reduce the risk of spread.

American pork producers blame the swine misnomer for plunging them from a loss-making situation before the disease broke out in Mexico last spring to an average per pig of $17.69 (€12.76) by May 1. Between April 24 and May 1, US pig farmers were losing $7.2 million (€5.19) a day, and were calling on the US Department of Agriculture for help.

Severe damage was caused to the pig industry in Mexico, where consumption of pork slumped 50% or more, and supplies of poultry meat ran short.

Across the border, the US pig industry was hit by partial import bans in China and Russia, the second and fourth-largest international buyers of US pork, together taking 27.4% of US pork exports.

More than 16 countries banned pork imports from at least some US states.

Economic effects rippled through animal feed markets, because the pork industry consumes 28% of grains and 23% of protein fed to livestock in North America.

It is possible that so many pig farmers will go out of business that a pork shortage could develop – because the world’s most knowledgeable scientists and medical experts lacked the precision and careful wording we expect from them. Instead, they have been careless and naive.

The World Health Organisation was calling the new disease “swine flu”, until April 30. Then it announced it would no longer use the term, instead calling the virus influenza A H1N1, or H1N1 for short. National public health agencies like the CDC in the US and the Public Health Agency of Canada followed suit.

Even earlier, the United Nations had mobilised a team of experts to investigate and confirm there was no direct link between the new virus and pigs.

The European Commission said it would call the new virus the “novel flu virus”.

The Paris-based OIE (Office International des Epizooties or World Organisation for Animal Health) proposed to refer to the new virus as “North American influenza”. President Obama’s administration insisted the new virus be referred to as the 2009 H1N1.

Their announcements revealed only naivety, because the cat was well out of the bag. The swine flu name was there to stay in the public imagination – which is why organisations like Britain’s Health Protection Agency still calls it swine influenza.

The media too must call it by the name which the public has accepted. But the media must carry some of the blame – if the vast social media networks such as bloggers, Facebook posts, and Twitter messages can be included as part of “the media”.

They flooded inaccurate reports worldwide from a Mexican newspaper, blaming a big Mexican pig farm for the outbreak. The farm has since been cleared of any blame.

The only silver lining is that scientists will think long and hard before they begin christening the next virus.