On Sunday, August 16, twitterers everywhere showed their support for the pork industry by including the hash tag #oink in their tweets. The hope was that it would become a trending topic — one that would help debunk misconceptions surrounding the H1N1 virus. It all began with Pork Magazine, which offered the suggested tweet: “Call it H1N1 Please. Calling it ‘Swine flu’ is not cool. U.S. pork producers work hard every day to provide safe and wholesome food. #oink.” As many of you know, calling this disease “swine flu” has had a devastating effect on pork producers who saw an immediate decline in exports, consumption and pork futures. In an effort to mend the situation, the World Health Organization announced it would refer to the pandemic as influenza A/H1N1 and urged the media to do so as well. If it’s true that new outbreaks of H1N1 will appear this fall and winter, the pork industry will suffer even more damages as misconceptions, like the virus, are sure to spread.
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