A Minnesota show-pig tested positive for a recent strain of the H1N1 flu virus, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Monday.

The department said the infection was found in a pig from the Minnesota State Fair and does not indicate infection of commercial swine.

The virus, officially known as Influenza A (H1N1), has been found in pigs in several other countries, but until now no cases in the United States had been confirmed.

The H1N1 virus was commonly referred to as the "swine flu" earlier this year, which caused a wide-spread misconception that the virus originated from swine. Researchers, however, have not found the actual origin of the virus.

Richard Hesse, director of diagnostic virology at K-State, said this strain is what is referred to as a triple-reassortant, meaning the virus has genes of human, avian and swine origin.

"Pigs have caught a bad rap on this," Hesse said.

He said H1N1 is actually referred to as a human virus now, and the World Organization for Animal Health has classified it as a human virus that occasionally can get into pigs.

Mike Tokach, professor in animal sciences and industry who specializes in swine nutrition, said many flu strains contain genes of avian and human, but the recent H1N1 strain had swine origin as well and as a result, blame was placed on pigs.

"It's so frustrating when we hear H1N1 called the swine flu," Tokach said. "It is in other species and there's not a high belief that it started in pigs."

When news of the H1N1 virus first emerged and became a top story, the pork industry was greatly affected. The decline in sales caused the industry to lose $2.5 million a day, according to the National Pork Producers Council. Several countries also put import bans on U.S. pork.

Worried the recent news of the flu virus infecting American swine will have a similar impact, the National Pork Producers Council continues to stress to the public that pork is safe to eat.

"People cannot contract any of these viruses from eating pork or any other meat," Tokach said.

Sean Fox, professor of agricultural economics, said it does not seem recent news is having an impact at all on pork sales. He said there was a slight decrease at first, but sales are already back up.

As far as protecting the health of swine populations, preventative steps are being taken. Hesse said the best step to take is to keep sick people away from pigs.

Researchers, while doing their best to stop the spread of the virus among pig populations, have not panicked over the swine's recent infection with the virus.

"Most of the experimental studies and most of the field exposure have reported that this is a pretty mild strain as far as pigs go," Hesse said.

While the pigs will likely get sick, he said it will not be severe.

"Will they recover and be fine to eat?" he said. "Absolutely."