Hoping to calm consumers and protect the pork industry, the European Commission is avoiding using "swine flu" to refer to the virus that has killed 159 people in Mexico and one in the United States, preferring the term "novel flu".
Pork producers fear the term "swine flu" will not only cause consumption to fall but could also give countries an excuse to impose politically-motivated bans on meat imports.
"Not to have a negative effect on our industry, we decided to call it novel flu from now on," European Union Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou told reporters in Brussels.
"We know that the consumption of pork is safe ... (when) it is cooked," reiterating that there have been no cases of the virus being transmitted from pigs to humans.
Despite the Commission's public statements, EU sources said it had sent an internal document in which the term became confused. It referred to "novel flu" in English, "Mexican flu" in French and "swine flu" in German.
Some pork producers are particularly concerned after Russia banned meat imports from North and South America. Washington and Moscow have in the past accused each other of using trade bans for political purposes.
US pork prices have fallen because of concerns the virus could weaken economies, slow trade and hurt meat consumption.
Richard Bessert, acting director of the US Centres for Disease Control, said "swine flu" led to the misapprehension that people can catch the virus from pork. "That's not helpful to pork producers. That's not helpful to people who eat pork. It's not helpful to people who are wondering, how can they get this infection," he said.
Israel has its own reasons to oppose use of "swine flu". Under Jewish dietary laws pigs are considered unclean and pork is a forbidden food, although the non-kosher meat is available in some stores in Israel. "We will call it Mexico flu. We won't call it swine flu," deputy health minister Yakov Litzman said.