Posted on 04/29/2009 5:49:41 PM PDT by angelcindy
Grist Magazine online has a must-read story by North Carolina-based food editor Tom Philpott examining a possible link between the outbreak of swine flu and Smithfield Foods of Virginia, the world's largest pork producer and processor.
Forty cases of the disease have been confirmed so far in the United States, including two cases in Texas, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The outbreak of this particular strain of flu, which is caused by virus found in pigs, originated in the Mexican state of Veracruz, where Smithfield subsidiary Granjas Carroll raises about a million hogs a year, Philpott reports.
He points to a timeline of the outbreak on the blog Biosurveillance that documents a "respiratory disease outbreak" in the small Veracruz town of La Gloria, where about 60% of the population of about 3,000 has been affected by what's been characterized as a "strange" outbreak of acute respiratory infection leading to some cases of bronchial pneumonia. According to Biosurveillance:
Residents believed the outbreak had been caused by contamination from pig breeding farms located in the area. They believed that the farms, operated by Granjas Carroll, polluted the atmosphere and local water bodies, which in turn led to the disease outbreak. According to residents, the company denied responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to "flu." However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms. It was unclear whether health officials had identified a suspected pathogen responsible for this outbreak.
Philpott notes that the Mexico City daily La Jornada has reported on the possible connection between the flu outbreak and Smithfield's operations, noting that a Mexican health agency has acknowledged that the original carrier of the disease may have been the flies that breed in the company's hog waste lagoons.
The swine flu outbreak has led to a drop in Smithfield's stock prices, with analysts increasing their loss estimates for that company has well as Arkansas-based Tyson Foods due to consumer concerns about pork.
Impeach 0bama. Remember when Lou Dobbs called Bush impeachment when Salmonella occurred in tomatoes?
Swine Flu Infects Pig Farm Profits
http://www.digtriad.com/news/features/article.aspx?storyid=123325&catid=216
NC Ag Commissioner Steve Troxler: “”We created a hysteria and people don’t really know whether the pork is safe to eat or not. The answer is the pork is perfectly safe to eat, there is no problem with pig health in either North Carolina, the United States, or the world. So you know this is something that has been blown out of proportion,””
My understanding is that this has absolutely nothing at all to do with pigs so why is this stuff still circulating. The swine flu has been around for years and this is NOT the swine flu - they really do need to change the name - it is H1N1 and it is a morph of three strains - human/swine/avian.
Still washing my hands, but wish I could figure out what this is all about.
I smell PETA.
No, every hog on the Smithfield farms has been tested with not one positive for infection. The local Mexicans have been after this company for years because of the stench, but there is no evidence of any disease on the premises. The writer of this piece obviously did not do much research into the subject.
It was out before but none of our communist news networks were reporting on it...
http://peakoilentrepreneur.com/swine-flu-smithfield-foods
I really, really love pork. Ham, heavenly ham and bacon...
but you know the Bible warns against pork. Superstition or not there may have very well been reasons based on Natural Law to not eat or raise pork.
Might say the same about chickens and ducks these days too.
I don’t think it’s being blown out of proportion. I am big on contingency planning all around.
It’s just annoying because it is NOT swine flu and, as you stated, has nothing to do with eating pork or pork products.
Meanwhile, they need to call it H1N1 which is what it is - a mixture of Swine-Human-Avian flu.
Oh come on, you KNEW this was coming. It’s all our fault.
ETc. ETc. Evil American corporations, yada yada yada.
why does a town of 3000 have a municipal health official?
Why does this remind me of the e-coli scares? Didn't that all lead to forced fire sales of Tyson competitors?
even if it came from the farm.. bigger problem is that there is no regulation in mexico.. and the pigs are let outside where they have birds flying over them all the time..
not an evil corporation problem.. but a shipping jobs outside the country problem.. imo
This is terribly disparaging if just speculation regarding this “pandemic” of a few hundred people.
Well of course, we must shut down another corporation in America.
The Bible only condems pork in the Jewish Law, Christians can eat anything they want
The Law also condemns Lobster. Bottom feeders, both of them. And Yummy!
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