By Alistair Bell and Daniel Trotta
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico says it is winning a battle against a deadly new swine flu virus and the global health alert triggered an international trade dispute on Monday over some nations' bans on Mexican, U.S. and Canadian pork.
As infections of the new H1N1 flu strain, now seen in 21 countries, continued to be crop up across the globe, the World Health Organisation wavered over whether it might declare a full pandemic alert.
Mexico, the epicentre of the outbreak of the new virus strain, said it was over the worst of its own emergency and prepared to resume some restricted business activities in Mexico City after a partial five-day shutdown.
But new international tensions triggered by the virus, which contains mostly swine components with bits of human and avian influenzas, emerged after about 20 nations banned imports of pork, pigs and other meat from the United States, Canada and Mexico, the three most flu-affected countries.
Canada threatened to take China to the World Trade Organisation unless Beijing backed down from its ban on imports of pigs and pork from Alberta province, where a herd of pigs was found to have the H1N1 strain.
While the new H1N1 virus is not food borne, fears it may spread through animal products have prompted restrictions on live pigs, pork, cattle, poultry, livestock, feed and animal semen from countries with infections.
U.S. hog futures fell on Monday and meat packing companies cut pork production this weekend amid the import bans and an apparent slide in retail orders due to the H1N1 flu, which has also caused exports from Canada to tumble.
CALL FOR CAUTION
WHO chief Margaret Chan said the apparent good news from Mexico over the epidemic had to be treated with caution.
"Flu viruses are very unpredictable, very deceptive ... We should not be over-confident," she said. "One must not give H1N1 the opportunity to mix with other viruses."
More than 1,000 people in 21 countries have caught what has become known as the swine flu, but U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said WHO does not plan to raise its pandemic alert to the highest level if the current outbreak of the new strain of flu continues as is.
However, epidemic experts warned that while the impact on world health appeared to be relatively mild at present, the fast-mutating flu could come back with a vengeance later.
"The next year it may break out in wild ways," said Dr. C.J. Peters, a microbiologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and specialist in emerging infectious diseases. "If we don't pay attention to this outbreak as a bad actor, we could be very, very sorry."
In the United States, the second biggest focus of infection after Mexico, the new virus has now infected 286 people in 36 states, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Before issuing a level 6 pandemic alert, WHO would need to see the virus spreading within communities in Europe or Asia.
"We are not there yet ... No one can say right now how the pandemic will evolve, or indeed whether we are going into a pandemic," Chan told a U.N. General Assembly session.
Last week, the WHO had signalled a pandemic was "imminent" by raising its alert level to 5 in recognition of the spread of the virus in Mexico and in the United States and Canada.
But European finance ministers said they saw no evidence the H1N1 flu was hurting Europe's economy.
MEXICO BREATHES EASIER
In Mexico, many offices and businesses stayed closed to try to prevent the spread of the new strain of H1N1 swine flu.
But Mexican President Felipe Calderon has said the outbreak in the Latin American oil producer that has killed 26 people there so far and made a further 701 ill is stabilizing.
Mexico's peso made its biggest gains in over six months on Monday and stocks jumped as fears eased about the outbreak's economic impact.
Mexico's government is preparing this week to ease curbs on business and social activity imposed under the flu alert, which have shut down much of public life in Mexico City since May 1.
Many Mexicans, chafing after days of isolation at home, are desperate to get back to work after a period of inactivity that has hit family incomes at a time of global recession.
"We hope they lift this as soon as possible, because it's affecting the economy ... It's going to be a disaster if this carries on," said Martin Velasquez, 28, a construction worker.
In a brewing diplomatic dispute between Mexico and China over the treatment of Mexican citizens caught up in the flu alert, Mexico was sending a plane to retrieve dozens of its nationals quarantined by Chinese authorities.
Mexico accused Beijing of discrimination against Mexicans, but China's Foreign Ministry rejected the criticism.
(Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta, Louise Egan and Michael O'Boyle in Mexico City; Laura MacInnis in Geneva, Patrick Worsnip in New York, Maggie Fox and Andrew Quinn in Washington, Jerry Bieszk and Michael Hirtzer in Chicago; Writing by Pascal Fletcher)
