TORONTO — A Central Alberta pig farm is under quarantine after its hogs caught the same H1N1 virus that has sickened more than 1,000 humans worldwide. The news has heightened fears among pig farmers, whose animals already face much prejudice because of the virus’s common name, swine flu.

As Alberta’s Agriculture Minister George Groeneveld and countless others have stressed, there is currently no evidence that the virus can be transferred by eating pork products. However, after this occurrence, which is believed to be the first instance that the disease was transferred from human to animal, pork consumers around the world are being extra cautious even after Groenveld publicly exclaimed that “there is no risk to [Alberta's] food supply.”

Chinese officials have banned pork imports from the province even though officials say that the virus was contained to the one farm and that all 2, 200 pigs were quarantined and contained. In total, 200 hogs were infected and are currently recovering. They pose no risk of transmitting the disease to any other Alberta hogs.

The virus was transmitted by a farmer to one of his pigs after he and his family returned from Mexico nearly a month ago with flu-like symptoms. Upon their return, the swine flu outbreak was not major news and therefore, the family never thought to get checked.

Though H1N1 ‚ cannot be transmitted through eating pork, 20 countries, including Russia, China and Thailand have banned the imports of pork products from infected nations including Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, three of the world’s top pork exporters.

The World Health Organization (WHO) remarked that it would need to see H1N1 spread throughout Asia and Europe before declaring a pandemic. This is thought to occur soon.

In Egypt, fears have also risen regarding the safety of pigs. On Saturday the government ordered the genocide of all pigs in Egypt (nearly 300,000), to which farmers and hog owners were outraged. Pig owners threw stones at government officials who in turn fired guns and tossed tear gas. The ‚ officials seized pigs from various owners and gave no compensation in return.

Remarkably, 12 were injured in riots caused by the pig slaughter. Oh and by the way, there have been no reports of any H1N1 virus ‚ cases in Egypt yet.

There’s been a ton of talk about H1N1 Influenza — known as “swine flu” — and the 109 cases reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But, name or no name, unless you keep kosher or are a vegetarian, pigs are still completely safe to eat, officials say.

“Many misconceptions relating to pigs have surfaced,” said Dennis Wolff, the Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture. “Pork products are safe to consume and living near or working on a hog farm is not a threat to human health.”

Here in Massachusetts, officials have released a fact sheet that says, among other things, that swine flu is nothing new. We’re just seeing an increased number of infections this year.

Your pork is still safe to eat. Don’t throw it away or boycott it.

Swine flu is like any other flu — stay home if you’re sick, wash your hands religiously, drink fluids, get rest, and see the doctor if you start developing symptoms.

But pork is still the other white meat.

I’ve got a dish to share with you that’s largely my father’s creation with some edits.

One of the best things about cooking a pork loin roast is that you get a ton of meat out of a single preparation. But a lot of food often means a lot of leftovers, and we all know that leftover pork or chicken or beef or turkey tends to dry up — even more so once you throw it in the microwave.

In this case, I prepared a center cut pork rib roast with some garlic, fennel seed, rosemary, and other spices the night before and had about half of it left afterward.

The next night was the perfect opportunity to create a dish that you’d swear wasn’t backed by leftover pork chops.

Pork and white wine sauce over pasta

This is a quick dish, especially when you’re using previously cooked meat — it also works with chicken and veal, especially saltimbocca.

Start by boiling enough water for as much pasta as you’ll need for your guests.

While your water is warming, take a large skillet over medium-high heat and add a little less than half a bottle of cheap, dry white wine, a pint of heavy whipping cream, a couple tablespoons to 1/4 cup of white flour and a few liberal tablespoons of dried parsley.

You can substitute light cream to reduce the fat content, but I wouldn’t go much lower. I tried this with skim milk once and it was a disaster.

Bring the sauce mixture to a boil, continually stirring it up, and lower the heat.

By now your water is boiling, so throw the pasta in. I like to salt the water before boiling, but it’s up to you. Use an interesting pasta — campanelle is a great choice with this dish.

Take another pan: skillet, saucepan, whatever and lightly coat it — seriously, just a little bit — with olive oil and throw in all your meat. If there are bones in it, leave it alone. Just throw it all in. Add some coarse salt, pepper, onion powder and a touch of mustard powder if you can. Lightly brown your pork over medium heat, turning it a few times.

You don’t want to re-cook the pork. This is just a better way than microwaving it. Warm it up, brown it a bit, spice it and it’s nice and warm and ready to eat.

Keep a loaf of crusty Italian bread handy. (A) you’ll want to rip off pieces of it to taste the sauce, and (B) it’s always good to have bread with a fine pasta meal.

Remember to keep stirring the sauce so it doesn’t clump or set. It’s an extremely delicious white sauce.

Put a few scoops of pasta on each plate. Put some meat on top and liberally cover it all with sauce. Add a slice of bread and some parsley, and you’ve got yourself a dish … a leftover dish.