Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Epidemic Is Killing Pigs in Southeastern China
New York Times ^ | May 7, 2007 | Keith Bradsher

Posted on 05/08/2007 1:31:16 AM PDT by Cyropaedia

HONG KONG, May 7 — A mysterious epidemic is killing pigs in southeastern China, but international and Hong Kong authorities said today that the Chinese government is providing little information about it, or about the contaminated wheat gluten that has caused deaths and illnesses in other animals.

The lack of even basic details is reviving longstanding questions about whether China is willing to share information about health and food safety issues with potential global implications.

The Chinese government — and particularly the government of Guangdong Province, which is adjacent to Hong Kong — was criticized in 2003 for concealing information about the SARS virus for the first four months after it emerged in Foshan, 95 miles northwest of Hong Kong. After SARS spread to Hong Kong and around the world, top Chinese officials promised to improve disclosure.

But officials in Hong Kong as well as at the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization, both agencies of the United Nations, said today that they been told almost nothing about the latest pig deaths, and been given limited details about wheat gluten contamination.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; epidemic; pigs
Well, here is one more glorious gift to our world courtesy the ChiComs...
1 posted on 05/08/2007 1:31:20 AM PDT by Cyropaedia
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Cyropaedia

Sounds like a Porky Pig Pandemic (P3). Better send in Ace Ventura, Pet Detective...


2 posted on 05/08/2007 1:40:39 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (Nancy Pelosi: The Babbling Bolshevik Babushka from the City by the Bay.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cyropaedia

Yet another potentially deadly wolrd-pandemic from Asia. What shall we call it? Perhaps “Swine Flu”? Nah, that’s been taken already.

Doesn’t matter. In three weeks this will be blown up into another H5N-style brouhaha, aimed at separating Western nations from their wealth in order to fund “Health Care” overseas; most of that funding will find it’s way into the pockets of kleptocrats and UN bureaucrats.


3 posted on 05/08/2007 1:44:17 AM PDT by Wombat101 (Islam: Turning everything it touches to Shi'ite since 632 AD...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Smokin' Joe

Is this worth a ping for the bird flu list?


4 posted on 05/08/2007 1:47:07 AM PDT by OwenKellogg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndreconmarine; Fitzcarraldo; Covenantor; Mother Abigail; EBH; Dog Gone; ...

ping, just in case...(Thanks, OwenKellogg!)


5 posted on 05/08/2007 1:50:49 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cyropaedia
It's a shame this article has to be exerpted. Every word is worth reading.

Here's another sample:

Hong Kong television broadcasts and newspapers were full of lurid accounts today of pigs staggering around with blood pouring from their bodies in Gaoyao and neighboring Yunfu, both in Guangdong Province. The Apple Daily newspaper said that as many as 80 percent of the pigs in the area had died, that panicky farmers were selling ailing animals at deep discounts and that pig carcasses were floating in a river.
I hope they're not selling those ailing pigs to us.
6 posted on 05/08/2007 2:01:53 AM PDT by BykrBayb (May the way of the hero lead to the triforce! Þ)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BykrBayb

Just ban all food imports from China.


7 posted on 05/08/2007 2:18:03 AM PDT by Cyropaedia ("Virtue cannot separate itself from reality without becoming a principal of evil...".)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Cyropaedia

Are you nuts! /propaganda


8 posted on 05/08/2007 2:26:49 AM PDT by Global2010
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: BykrBayb

/Luau


9 posted on 05/08/2007 2:29:33 AM PDT by Global2010
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Global2010
I'm not. This whole melamine/gluten fiasco is simply the tip of the iceberg. Much of their meat/poultry products are probably tainted as well.

They really need to find out what's killing all these pigs...

10 posted on 05/08/2007 3:07:17 AM PDT by Cyropaedia ("Virtue cannot separate itself from reality without becoming a principal of evil...".)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Cyropaedia

How long before AlGore proclaims the ccause is “Global Warming”?


11 posted on 05/08/2007 3:38:42 AM PDT by A. Morgan (Fred Thompson’s record is solid and he does not waffle. Fred for PREZ in 2008!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: aculeus; dighton; martin_fierro; Lijahsbubbe

Tastes like melamine er chicken. Nothing to see here, ignore any porcine pandemics percolating under your nose ping.


12 posted on 05/08/2007 3:39:06 AM PDT by Thinkin' Gal
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cyropaedia
...said today that they['d] been told almost nothing...

Coming from the NY Slimes I shouldn't be surprised, but Keith Bradsher needs a better editor (and education). When what you have to sell is print, it ought to checked for proper English.

13 posted on 05/08/2007 4:05:06 AM PDT by bcsco
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bcsco

When what you have to sell is print, it ought to checked for proper English.

it BE happen every time ....


14 posted on 05/08/2007 4:10:36 AM PDT by THEUPMAN (####### comment deleted by moderator)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Cyropaedia

Check them for melamine and get back to me...


15 posted on 05/08/2007 4:11:30 AM PDT by Gorzaloon (Global Warming: A New Kind Of Scientology for the Rest Of Us.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BykrBayb

Having spent plenty of time in the Guangdong province, I suspect the pollution has severely weakened the immune systems of these animals as well as the locals. This will ultimately lead to some massive die-offs. Lets just hope the die-off doesn’t make it to our shores.


16 posted on 05/08/2007 4:26:15 AM PDT by Malsua
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Cyropaedia
This whole melamine/gluten fiasco is simply the tip of the iceberg. Much of their meat/poultry products are probably tainted as well. They really need to find out what's killing all these pigs...

It is not that easy to develop a national-scale market economy. One central requirement is that buyers and sellers need to be able to trust each other's honesty, and to have effective methods of punishing dishonest behavior

On the village scale, interactions work because everybody has known everybody else for generations, and understands that they will have to interact with each other for generations into the future

On the national level, when a farmer buys tainted livestock feed from a company owned by the son of some Party member, he does not have effective recourse if the owners are immune from being punished for cheating a farmer.

The market economy is only viable in moral cultures

17 posted on 05/08/2007 4:39:50 AM PDT by PapaBear3625
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: PapaBear3625
The market economy is only viable in moral cultures

I agree.

18 posted on 05/08/2007 4:45:28 AM PDT by Cyropaedia ("Virtue cannot separate itself from reality without becoming a principal of evil...".)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Cyropaedia

Now we know where the contaminated wheat gluten went..........


19 posted on 05/08/2007 5:24:44 AM PDT by Red Badger (My gerund got caught in my diphthong, and now I have a dangling participle...............)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Gorzaloon

I’ve seen porceline pigs, but not melamine..........


20 posted on 05/08/2007 5:25:36 AM PDT by Red Badger (My gerund got caught in my diphthong, and now I have a dangling participle...............)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: BykrBayb

Sounds more viral than melamine poisoning.

Great.


21 posted on 05/08/2007 5:39:40 AM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: BykrBayb

Sounds like it could be Ebola or some or other hemoragic (sp?) virus. The Chinese better start applying some of their newfound wealth to better environmental and health issues before they de-populate their own country.


22 posted on 05/08/2007 5:44:21 AM PDT by darth
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger
I’ve seen porceline pigs, but not melamine..........

Well, you know those cheap imitations they make..like those horrible "Rolex" watches...

23 posted on 05/08/2007 5:49:04 AM PDT by Gorzaloon (Global Warming: A New Kind Of Scientology for the Rest Of Us.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Gorzaloon
You mean my Rorex is FAKE?..........
24 posted on 05/08/2007 5:52:44 AM PDT by Red Badger (My gerund got caught in my diphthong, and now I have a dangling participle...............)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Cyropaedia

Sorry poor attempt at funny.

It really is serious stuff.

The antifreeze in the cough syrup for kids has me concerned.

My adult son uses childrens mucinex elixer daily.
(pulomonary issues meds via g tube and it works great)
The label says New Jersey (iirc) but are any ingrediants from China?


25 posted on 05/08/2007 5:57:54 AM PDT by Global2010
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Cyropaedia

Could be a lot of things. A little over a decade ago we had our own swine disease that played havoc in the US pork industry. That is why my father had to get out of the business.


26 posted on 05/08/2007 6:05:09 AM PDT by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BykrBayb
That sounds familiar (grew up as the son of a hog farmer). I should know some of those symptoms, but can’t quite place it.

If I have time, I will call my Dad tonight and see if he knows.

27 posted on 05/08/2007 6:08:36 AM PDT by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: darth
"The Chinese better start applying some of their newfound wealth to better environmental and health issues before they de-populate their own country."

I worry that it will get a lot worse before it gets better.

28 posted on 05/08/2007 6:24:13 AM PDT by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Cyropaedia
Just ban all food imports from China.

BINGO

I've tried my best to avoid any China foodstuffs.
Looking for a loaf of bread last week, I didn't see one w/o wheat gluten though. Don't know where the gluten came from.

29 posted on 05/08/2007 6:26:34 AM PDT by Vinnie (You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Jihads You)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Vinnie
"Looking for a loaf of bread last week, I didn't see one w/o wheat gluten though. Don't know where the gluten came from."

I think the contamination extends beyond just 'wheat gluten.'

30 posted on 05/08/2007 6:29:04 AM PDT by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Cyropaedia

This is the first time that virus has killed pigs!

31 posted on 05/08/2007 6:35:46 AM PDT by Loud Mime ("It is not intellect which makes a great scientistl; it is chararacter." Einstein)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Thinkin' Gal; dighton; martin_fierro; Lijahsbubbe
Tastes like melamine er chicken. Nothing to see here, ignore any porcine pandemics percolating under your nose proboscis ping.

New Olympic events to be introduced in 2008: Dysentery and Barfing.

32 posted on 05/08/2007 8:24:49 AM PDT by aculeus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: darth

Its better that they accidentally depopulate themselves now than the present likely eventuality of us having to “depopulate” each other.


33 posted on 05/08/2007 8:37:17 AM PDT by gnarledmaw (I traded freedom for security and all I got were these damned shackles.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Wombat101

Actually, H5N1 is already being referred to as “China Flu”.


34 posted on 05/08/2007 6:52:37 PM PDT by Domestic Church (AMDG...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Cyropaedia

PING to read later


35 posted on 05/08/2007 7:04:34 PM PDT by AnimalLover ( ((Are there special rules and regulations for the big guys?)))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson