Hogs, Pork Bellies Plunge on Swine Flu Concern; Cattle Steady (Bloomberg) April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Hog and pork-belly futures plunged the exchange limit in Chicago on speculation that pork demand will shrink with the global spread of swine flu in humans. Cattle were little changed, erasing earlier declines. [News Source]

History Says Avoid Virus Hysteria (Forbes) Let the public health experts freak out about swine flu. The rest of us should relax. [News Source]

Swine flu pressures commodity trade; puts hog industry on heightened watch (Agriculture Online) Though the disease's actual human casualties are small in number to this point, the news about the spread of swine flu became its own pandemic over the weekend. As a new week begins, so do reactions around the world, including those in the businesses and industries associated with the flu strain's namesake. [News Source]

Investors are cautious as swine flu cases increase (Detroit Free Press) UPDATED AT 4:40 P.M. — NEW YORK — The swine flu gave Wall Street a reason to turn cautious. The Dow Jones industrial average gave up a midday recovery and retreated about 0.6% today as the swine flu's death count in Mexico grew to about 150 people from 100. [News Source]

Policy Areas (European Union) "Our agrifood sector is the third largest employer in the European Union. When it functions well, it not only provides us with a plentiful supply of safe food but also helps to sustain the rural areas which we value so highly. [News Source]

Swine flu fears prompt quarantine plans, pork bans. Countries planned quarantines, tightened rules on pork imports and tested airline passengers for fevers as global health officials tried Sunday to come up with uniform ways to battle a deadly strain of swine flu. [News Source]

EU deal ‘to boost protection of human and animal health’. An agreement between the EU and the European Parliament, new regulation of animal by-products will enhance the protection of people and animals against dangerous diseases, such as swine and bird flu, mad cow disease, and foot and mouth disease, as well as substances such as dioxins. [News Source]

Swine flu fears prompt quarantine plans, pork bans. Countries planned quarantines, tightened rules on pork imports and tested airline passengers for fevers as global health officials tried Sunday to come up with uniform ways to battle a deadly strain of swine flu. [News Source]

EU deal ‘to boost protection of human and animal health’. An agreement between the EU and the European Parliament, new regulation of animal by-products will enhance the protection of people and animals against dangerous diseases, such as swine and bird flu, mad cow disease, and foot and mouth disease, as well as substances such as dioxins. [News Source]

Airline shares hit by swine flu outbreak (Channel 4) Airline and leisure company shares have been hit over fears that the swine flu outbreak will impact on global travel. [News Source]