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 ...
Sounds like a Porky Pig Pandemic (P3). Better send in Ace Ventura, Pet Detective...
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.
Is this worth a ping for the bird flu list?
ping, just in case...(Thanks, OwenKellogg!)
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.
Just ban all food imports from China.
Are you nuts! /propaganda
/Luau
They really need to find out what's killing all these pigs...
How long before AlGore proclaims the ccause is “Global Warming”?
Tastes like melamine er chicken. Nothing to see here, ignore any porcine pandemics percolating under your nose ping.
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.
When what you have to sell is print, it ought to checked for proper English.
it BE happen every time ....
Check them for melamine and get back to me...
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.
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
I agree.
Now we know where the contaminated wheat gluten went..........
I’ve seen porceline pigs, but not melamine..........
Sounds more viral than melamine poisoning.
Great.
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.
Well, you know those cheap imitations they make..like those horrible "Rolex" watches...
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?
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.
If I have time, I will call my Dad tonight and see if he knows.
I worry that it will get a lot worse before it gets better.
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.
I think the contamination extends beyond just 'wheat gluten.'

This is the first time that virus has killed pigs!
New Olympic events to be introduced in 2008: Dysentery and Barfing.
Its better that they accidentally depopulate themselves now than the present likely eventuality of us having to “depopulate” each other.
Actually, H5N1 is already being referred to as “China Flu”.
PING to read later
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