, '' Gene Hugoson , commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture , told reporters in a conference call on Friday . The U.S. Department of Agriculture National veterinary services laboratories conducted the confirmatory testing on the sample collected at the fair , held in Saint Paul , Minnesota , between August 26 and September 1 . Further testing is ongoing . The pigs sampled showed no signs of sickness and were apparently healthy , the officials said . The samples collected were part of a joint University of Iowa and University of Minnesota research project funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine whether animals at such events had the infection . `` Like people , swine routinely get sick or contract influenza viruses , '' Vilsack said . The misconception that the virus , sometimes called the swine flu , could be contracted through eating pork has hurt sales of the meat in the wake of the expanding pandemic . This year 's crowd of 1.79 million attendees was a record . Though an outbreak of H1N1 was reported among a group of 4-H ` ers who had attended the fair , officials said it
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- The H1N1 virus has been confirmed in a sample taken from a pig that was displayed at the Minnesota State Fair , the first time the virus has been found in a U.S. pig , the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday . The Department of Agriculture quickly issued a statement saying the food supply is safe . `` We have fully engaged our trading partners to remind them that several international organizations , including the World Organization for Animal Health , have advised that there is no scientific basis to restrict trade in pork and pork products , '' Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in the statement . `` People can not get this flu from eating pork or pork products . Pork is safe to eat . '' The announcement came three days after health officials announced that three pigs that were displayed during the fair had tested positive in a preliminary test for the H1N1 flu virus . Final results on the other two pigs have not been announced . `` This , of course , may be the first indication that it is present in some swine here in the United States