It’s bad enough that it’s caused sickness and, in some cases, death.

But in the midst of all the hype surrounding H1N1 — also known as swine flu — the virus has come close to taking another casualty, as well: the swine industry. The National Pork Producers Council reports that the industry, which already was suffering economically, has lost more than a billion dollars since last spring, when the use of the term “swine flu” became widespread.

“It’s unfortunate, because a lot of people made the association that it’s an issue for pork, and it isn’t,” says Don Nikodim, executive director of the Missouri Pork Association. “Pork is completely safe; you don’t get H1N1 from eating pork.”

Despite this, the Associated Press — from which many other news outlets take style cues — defended the use of the term last spring by noting that six of the eight genetic segments of this virus strain are purely swine flu and that the other two segments are bird and human but have lived in swine for the past decade.

“It’s a flu virus from a swine,” the AP quotes Henry Niman, president of Recombinomics, a Pittsburgh company that tracks how viruses evolve. “There’s no other name to call it.”

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack argued against this last month, however, noting that this flu virus is not the same as the swine flu that has been present in the United States for 80 years. In response to reactions like his and outcry from the pork industry, many media outlets have shied away from using the flu’s common name, instead opting to use its scientific name.

“At this point, it looks like the media is doing a much better job of using H1N1,” Mr. Nikodim says.

And at least locally, maybe this is making a difference. Both Hy-Vee and Apple Market report that their pork sales are holding steady.

“Our pork sales are right where they always have been and are even up a little,” says Duane Koehler, a meat cutter at the Apple Market on Mitchell Avenue in St. Joseph. “You’d think there would be an association (with swine flu) because of the name, but we haven’t heard a word.”

Lifestyles reporter Erin Wisdom can be reached at ewisdom@npgco.com.