Pig farmers threw rocks at police officers in Cairo, Egypt, on Sunday as health workers gathered the farmers' herds for slaughter in what the government says is a precaution against the spread of swine flu, an interior ministry official told CNN.

Brig. Gen. Hani Abdel-Latif said 50 to 60 protesters gathered in Cairo's Manshiyet Naser slum because they were upset with the health ministry's decision to slaughter all pigs in the country.

But local media reported the number of farmers clashing with police on Sunday was in the hundreds.

Experts have criticized the Egyptian government's move, announced last week, to slaughter all pigs regardless of whether they are infected.

There have been no confirmed cases of the virus in Egypt.

And according to the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, humans cannot get the swine flu virus, known to scientists as the H1N1 virus, by eating pork. The CDC says human infection from pigs most likely occurs when people are in close proximity to sick animals, such as in pig barns.

But Egyptian officials cite how avian flu still exists in the country because, they say, the government did not take sufficient protective measures when that disease was first discovered there in 2006.

Most Egyptian pig farmers are Coptic Christians, a group that makes up about 10 percent of the 80 million people in the mostly Muslim nation. Coptic Christians do not observe the Muslim ban on eating pork, and historically they have coexisted peacefully with the Muslim majority in Egypt.

The farmers also work in the garbage industry and use their daily collections to feed their herds, which number about 300,000 animals in the country.

With the government-mandated slaughter under way, Egypt's Health Ministry declared Saturday that "Egypt is free of the swine flu."

Dr. Hamid Samaha, head of the country's Public Institute for Veterinary Services, said that starting Sunday the government will compensate pig farmers by paying as much as $45 for a disease-free pig and about $5 for diseased ones.

The health ministry told CNN its workers are freezing all the disease-free meat and plan to give it back to its owners once the ban on pigs is lifted. But according to Egypt's state-run al-Akhbar newspaper, ministry sources said the country does not have enough facilities to store the frozen meat. Ministry spokesman Dr. Abdel-Rahman Shaheen said the government will open two new slaughterhouses in two provinces near Cairo, al-Alioubiya and al-Giza.

Shaheen also announced Saturday that the ministry has enlisted 100 additional doctors and nurses to help in health quarantines at Cairo Airport, where travelers are being questioned if they have been to Mexico recently. And more are expected to be hired to help at Alexandra's main seaport, where the government declared a state of emergency last week.

內政部的一位官員告訴電視新聞網（CNN）說，周日，豬農們在埃及開羅向警察投擲石塊，因為衛生工作人員集中農民的畜群進行宰殺，政府稱其是為了預防豬流感的傳播。
　　
哈尼 阿卜杜勒-拉迪夫準將說，50 到 60 名抗議者聚集在開羅 Manshiyet Naser 貧民窟，他們因為衛生部決定宰殺這個國家所有的豬而驚惶不安。
　　
但是當地媒體報道，周日與警方發生沖突的農民數量為數百人。

專家們批評埃及政府的行為，政府上周宣布屠宰所有的豬，不論牠們是否被感染。
　　
目前在埃及還沒有證實豬流感病毒的案例。
　　
但是根據建立在美國的疾病控制與預防中心的說法，人類不會經由吃豬肉而感染豬流感病毒這種科學家已知為 H1N1 的病毒。美國疾病控制與預防中心說，人類來自豬的感染最可能發生在人們與生病的動物密切接觸時，例如在豬棚。
　　
但是埃及官員援引說禽流感如何仍然在這個國家存在，是因為政府在 2006 年首次發現這種疾病時沒有采取足夠的防護措施。
　　
大多數埃及豬農是科普特基督教徒，這是在這個大多數為穆斯林的國家里，占 8 千萬人中大約百分之十的一個群體。科普特基督教徒不遵守穆斯林有關吃豬肉的禁令，歷史上他們與埃及的穆斯林多數一直和平共處。
　　
這些農民們還工作在垃圾產業，并且利用他們的日常收集物養活他們的畜群，在這個國家，這些動物的數量大約有 30 萬頭。
　　
在正在進行政府指令的屠宰的同時，埃及衛生部周六宣布：“埃及沒有豬流感。”
　　
分管該國公眾獸醫服務協會的哈米德 薩馬哈博士說，周日開始，政府將按健康的豬支付高達 45 美元以及有病的豬支付大約 5 美元來補償豬農。
　　
衛生部告訴 CNN 說，它的工人們正在冷凍無病的肉，并且計劃在一旦解除豬的禁令時將其返回給它的主人。但是根據埃及官方消息報的報道，衛生部說過這個國家沒有足夠的設施來存放凍肉。這個部的發言人阿卜杜勒-拉赫曼 沙欣博士說，政府將在開羅附近的兩個省阿略比亞和阿吉薩開放兩個新的屠宰場。
　　
沙欣在周六還宣布，衛生部已經額外招聘 100 名醫生和護士在開羅機場幫助檢疫，在那里，旅客們被詢問是否他們最近去過墨西哥。預期還有更多的人要被雇用，在亞歷山大主要港口提供幫助，政府上周宣布那里進入緊急狀態。