At least four additional American universities have canceled study-abroad programs in Mexico, citing concerns about the spread of swine flu there.

The University of Minnesota announced today that it was halting “all current and planned education abroad programs in Mexico until further notice.” The university advised its 21 students now in Mexico to return to the United States. Programs that an additional 52 students were scheduled to attend in late May were canceled.

The University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire said it would suspend its six-week summer program, which was to have started on May 26. The 23 students scheduled for the trip will be given the option of going instead to Costa Rica, the Associated Press reported.

Butler University has also canceled a Spanish-language-immersion program in Mexico that was scheduled to begin May 15, WRTV, the ABC affiliate in Indianapolis, reported. More than a dozen students had planned to attend the three-week program, in Guadalajara.

And study-abroad officials at Pennsylvania State University at Altoona said in an e-mail message that they would cancel a program to two Mexican cities, Guanajuato and Mexico City, that was to begin in just nine days.

Suffolk University had already called off a program on Mexican culture and Spanish language that was to have begun in June. But at most colleges, officials were taking a wait-and-see attitude, closely monitoring guidance from the State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on travel to Mexico. —Karin Fischer