The Myanmar Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department on Tuesday warned against swine flu in humans in the wake of detection of the disease in people of some four countries.

With no cases of the disease reported in Myanmar, the department has outlined in a statement some preventive measures to be followed against swine flu, calling on pig breeders to keep pigs in quarantine if found sickness with them.

The statement urged the breeders to take care of biosecurity in farms where large number of pigs are raised and ban sale of unhealthy pigs in the markets.

The statement also advised the breeders not to raise the pigs of unknown origin especially smuggled from abroad.

Suspected swine flu cases were reported in Mexico, the United States, Canada and New Zealand in the third week of this month and over 100 were suspectedly killed by the disease.

According to health experts, the flu is caused by a new strain of virus which is mixed with four genes and can spread quickly.

The health authorities warned that the swine flu, like SARS, can become pandemic.

The World Health Organization has raised the influenza pandemic alert level to phase four, just two steps shy of a global pandemic level.

(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2009)