H1N1 confirmed in Hoosier swine herd

Indiana - (WLFI/AP) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture said pigs in a commercial herd in Indiana have tested positive for the H1N1 flu virus, but have now recovered.

This is the first instance of swine flu in a commercial herd in the United States.

The USDA said it took four tissue samples from the farm at an unspecified location in Indiana. The samples tested positive for the virus at the University of Minnesota on October 29, and at the USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratories on November 2.

The pigs are in a farrow-to-finish operation, in a barn containing 3,000 swine, and likely caught the virus from their human caretakers.

The USDA says the pigs and the people have all recovered.

Although H1N1 is sometimes called swine flu, it has NOT been showing up in US hogs. The only other report of the flu in swine came last month, when several show pigs at the Minnesota State Fair tested positive for the virus.

Despite the fact that some pigs have tested positive for the virus, consumers likely have little reason to be concerned.

According to the World Organization for Animal Health, influenza viruses are not known to be transmissible to people through eating processed pork or other food products derived from pigs.

Still, word of a commercial herd contracting the virus for the first time is bad news for the pork industry, which has struggled with poor prices blamed on swine flu fears and the global recession.

Agriculture experts expected that swine flu would eventually show up in domestic swine and a vaccine for hogs is being developed but not yet available. News of the virus in pigs came after herd infections in several other countries, including Canada, Australia, Argentina, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Norway.

The positive tests in Indiana came just days after U.S. officials successfully negotiated an end to one of the more damaging commercial effects of swine flu — a six-month ban on pork imports to China. Officials expect the Chinese to reopen their import markets, offering pork producers an opportunity to export to what was their fastest growing market before the swine flu outbreak.