SWINE FLU PANIC * Sharp drop in pork patronage

Front Page: Daily Graphic, May 12, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
PORK, a Ghanaian delicacy, is said to be recording low patronage since news about the outbreak of Influenza A (H1N1), otherwise referred to as swine flu, reached the country.
Traders who retail pork told the Daily Graphic yesterday that sales dipped further when the government reacted with a ban on the importation of pork and pork products into the country.
They have, therefore, called on the government to make announcements to inform and educate the public on the real facts of swine flu, especially the fact that the disease has not been reported in Ghana and that it is not found in cooked pork.
The Director of the Veterinary Services Department of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Dr Enoch Boye-Mensah Koney, endorsed the retailers’ stance when he agreed with them that the outbreak of the disease had been overblown by the local media, a fact which had contributed to low business for the traders.
He said there was no cause for alarm and urged consumers to patronise the product.
Dr Koney said the disease had not been detected in any part of Africa and that the situation was not as it had been publicised by the media.
He said there was a technical team comprising officials of MOFA, the Ministry of Health and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) in place which met regularly to review the situation.
He said the team would meet on Thursday, May 14, 2009 to update the Ministry of Health and MOFA on the situation.
Dr Koney contended that there was no need for the government to have banned the importation of pork and pork products if it had been properly debriefed on the issue.
He said the African Union-International African Bureau of Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) last week criticised African countries which had resorted to the culling and quarantine of pigs, saying that “culling and quarantine interventions on the swine industry are unwarranted”.
Dr Koney said the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health had both issued statements stating that there was no evidence to show that the influenza could be transmitted through food.
Some pig farmers, however, said their businesses had not been affected in any way by the outbreak and urged Ghanaians to enjoy their locally-produced pork provided they were well cooked.
According to them, there had not been any negative impact of the disease on the production and sale of pigs.
Mesdame Joyce Odamptey and Elizabeth Adamah who are based at the slaughter house for pigs at Five Junction at Osu said the intake of pork had gone down drastically.
They said people who used to order some of the pork for social gatherings such as funerals, weddings and parties had all stopped.
Madam Odamptey said only the youth now patronised pork, while the elderly shunned it.
“I wish that the government went on air to make announcements about the real situation. The sale of pork is our source of income to pay our children’s school fees and meet other obligations,” she said.
The owner of Christian Service Farm at Yahoman, near Amasaman, Dr Paul K. Fynn, told the Daily Graphic that the effect of Influenza A was mostly in Europe because consumers there did not cook pork well before eating it, adding that Ghanaians normally cooked their meat very well before eating it and so there was not much cause for alarm.
“People must not live in fear. They must cook their pork well and enjoy it. Once pork is well cooked, the bacteria will be destroyed,” he remarked.
For his part, Mr Jonathan Nii Addo Mensah, who owns a piggery at Osu, said the demand for pigs was still high.
He said until the outbreak of the flu in Mexico, 10 pigs were slaughtered at the piggery per day and the situation had not changed.
Influenza A is a respiratory disease caused by influenza type A, which infects pigs. There are many types and the infection is constantly changing.
To date, 30 countries on four continents — the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania — have confirmed the infection.
The virus has been detected in people in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China (Hong Kong), Costa Rica, Colombia, Denmark, El Salvador, France, Germany, Guatemala, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the US.
According to the AU-IBAR, the current outbreak was caused by a new sub-type and there was so far no evidence that pigs were involved in the current outbreak.
Symptoms of swine flu include fever, cough, sore throat, bodily aches, chills and fatigue.
Although the source of the outbreak in humans is still unknown, cases were first discovered in the US and officials soon suspected a link between those incidents and an earlier outbreak of late-season flu cases in Mexico.
Soon thereafter, the WHO, along with the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), expressed concern that Influenza A (H1N1) could become a world-wide flu pandemic and the WHO then raised its pandemic alert level to "Phase 5" out of the six maximum as a "signal that a pandemic is imminent".
The outbreak was first detected in Mexico City in cases of influenza-like illness starting on March 18.
The surge was assumed by Mexican authorities to be "late-season flu" (which usually coincides with a mild Influenza virus B peak) until April 21 when a CDC alert concerning two isolated cases of a novel swine flu was reported in the media.