Officials are concerned about infected humans passing the the virus on to their animals.
Swine influenza, or H1N1, is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza virus that regularly causes outbreaks of influenza in pigs. The virus is contagious and spreads from human to human.
Signs are posted outside petting barns asking visitors to wash their hands before and after touching animals. Signs also request fairgoers who have been sick in the past week stay away. The signs say, “Our animals are healthy. Are you?”
Tina Jones, one of the owners of Sonny Brothers Livestock in Barnesville, N.C., had hogs at the swine competition and said she was glad they put the warning sign up to keep sick humans away from their healthy pigs.
“I felt better knowing that they were trying to get the people that were sick out of here,” Jones said. “Hopefully the public knows that you can’t catch the flu from the fair hogs because they were vaccinated.”
The fair has set up two barriers between fairgoers and the animal competition pens.
“The public can’t get into certain parts of the exhibit areas due to the barriers,” Jones said. “That way we can keep people out of there and the animals remain safe from the public.”
Jones also said she hasn’t seen a decrease in traffic through the exhibit area because of the people fearing the pigs.
“This barn has been crowded all day,” Jones said. “It looks normal to me, I try to go to a couple of exhibits and it was like so crowded.”
Jones said there is a vet that checks the hogs and animals exhibited for competition and they must pass through an inspection station.
“Our pigs were vaccinated,” Jones said. “They had to do that as a public relation necessity.”
Restaurants and dining areas at the fair believe the H1N1 flu has not affected business.
Lori Tingen, co-manager of the Apex Lions Club, which serves hotdogs, cheeseburgers and biscuits at the fair, said business has been booming since the fair opened.
“We have a lot of people ask if our hotdogs are either beef or pork,” Tingen said. “But I can’t say it’s because of people fearing the flu.”
This is the first year the restaurant has put out hand sanitizer for the customers’ own usage and personal hygiene.
“We put hand sanitizer right before you get to the food station to encourage people to utilize that. It’s just a precaution,” Tingen said.
She also said people are funny about what they eat but that has been a consistent factor in the customer’s personal choice of meat for a long time.
“Most of them are looking for beef,” Tingen said. “So I guess in that perspective they are being a little bit more conscious of what they’re eating.”
