(Repeats to fix typo in headline.) WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) - Canadian pigs and pork are unlikely to spread the new H1N1 flu virus and are safe to import, Britain's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said on Wednesday. "We continue to consider that there would be a negligible likelihood of introducing new variant influenza A (H1N1) to the U.K. by the legal import of pigs or pig products from Canada," DEFRA said in a statement. "The current EU trade rules for live pigs and pig products are considered appropriate to mitigate the risk of disease introduction." A Canadian herd of pigs was infected last month with the new swine flu virus currently circulating among people in more than 30 countries, but the DEFRA report suggests this was a once-only event. The report was less certain about whether pigs in other countries might be infected with the virus. H1N1 viruses frequently affect pigs, which do not always become ill. "Surveillance for influenza in pig herds in Great Britain and elsewhere in the European Union has been carried out since 1991," the report reads. "Results suggest that although swine influenza of all strains remains a low level disease with occasional epizootics of new strains, this new variant of H1N1 does not appear to be present in pigs in the U.K. or EU." An epizootic is an epidemic among animals. "There is still considerable uncertainty as to the true situation in pigs in affected areas," DEFRA said. It said the United Nations' animal health agency OIE and the Food and Agriculture Organization were on a mission to Mexico to find out more. "More information will be available from a current OIE FAO mission to Mexico and meanwhile we will continue to work with international organisations to understand whether there is any increased risk to pigs in the UK and whether any action to restrict trade would be appropriate," the report reads. (Reporting by Maggie Fox)
A man leaves the hotel where the passengers of a flight from Mexico were quarantined for medical observation for seven days in Shanghai May 13, 2009. An aircraft carrying 98 Chinese ...
