WE cannot allow to go unchallenged the arrant nonsense published under the name of Kate Fowler, head of campaigns for Animal Aid.

To quote from the Government's own leaflet distributed to every household: "Swine flu is a respiratory disease and has some elements of a virus found in pigs. There is no evidence of this disease circulating in pigs in the UK and scientists are investigating its origins."

It goes on to say that pandemic flu is different from ordinary flu because it is a new flu virus that appears in humans and spreads very quickly from person to person and is best controlled by personal hygiene.

The blatantly propagandist attempts by this animal rights group — whose primary function is to encourage young people not to eat meat — to link this illness with farming can, at the very least, be characterised as mischief-making.

There is absolutely no risk from British pigs or pig meat, which is produced to tightly controlled animal welfare and environmental standards that are among the highest in the world.

IAN JOHNSON National Farmers' Union South West, Exeter