Children scramble after piglets at the Orleans County Fair in Barton, Vt. Vermont’s oldest fair, in Caledonia County, has canceled such swine-related events.

Lyndonville, Vt. ? No sow and piglets in the children’s barnyard at this year’s Caledonia County Fair. No baby pig chases, either.

Swine are unwelcome at Vermont’s oldest fair — uninvited because of misconceptions about how the swine flu virus spreads. Although the novel H1N1 pandemic virus is primarily a human disease, transmitted from human to human, fair officials say they want to protect themselves from bad publicity or frivolous lawsuits if someone gets sick and blames it on a pig.

That puts the Caledonia County Fair at odds with most other fairs across the country, which are going to great lengths to protect their pigs from people since the virus can be transmitted to the animals by humans.

The virus, which has turned up in herds in Canada, Argentina and Australia, has yet to be found in pigs in the U.S.

Fairs and petting zoos routinely encourage handwashing to protect people from animal-borne illnesses like E. coli. Now some fairs are urging handwashing to protect the animals — specifically pigs — from the current pandemic.

When the Oregon State Fair opened in Salem on Friday, visitors confronted pig barriers, recommended by the state veterinarian.

“Our pigs aren’t sick, are you?” say signs that will be posted at the fair. “If you’re not feeling well, don’t visit the pigs.”

In Maine, officials have distributed posters to fairs with swine exhibits that ask fairgoers to stay out of the exhibits if they are showing signs of having the flu.

“Right now, we’re more worried about people giving it to pigs, rather than vice versa,” said state veterinarian Don Hoenig.