CNN is strongly hinting that the flu began in a Smithfield factory farm

[Critters2]

in Mexico. As someone who used to live in the shadow of these industrialized "farms", with all their environmental abuses, I must say I'm not surprised. Maybe people will start looking at the problems these places cause, and we will go back to raising animals in humane, environmentally safe conditions.

[TheWraith]

1. That's a rumor that's going around for weeks apparently...

But as yet nobody has provided any actual evidence of it, nor come up with a credible explanation of how.

[kestrel91316]

12. We vets already know how these things happen.

Swine serve as highly effective flu virus "mixing vessels" because they can be simultaneously infected with swine flu viruses AND human flu viruses AND avian flu viruses. That, combined with flu viruses well-known propensity to swap DNA among its friends, means swine are perfect incubators for all sorts of novel flu viruses. No mystery whatsoever here.

If Smithfield says it's inpossible for this to have arisen in its CFO near the epicenter, they are LYING. It's entirely possible. Usually new flus come out of Asia, but this clearly isn't the case this time. The virus had to have arisen near where the epidemic started, whick is some village whose name escapes me.

Did the virus IN FACT come from Smithfield? Who knows? They could have purged their stock by now to get rid of any evidence implicating them. Third World animal husbandry is the ideal situation for this to arise, as opposed to more closely-regulated US CAFOs. There is a reason they are operating in Mexico and not the US: they can get away with murder down there. Perhaps literally.

[Critters2]

13. They get away with a damned lot here. The legislatures of Iowa

and other ag states bend over every time Smithfield asks for anything.

[OneGrassRoot]

17. and North Carolina. :( n/t

[hedgehog]

14. The way I explained it to my Dad is to think of a flu virus as a string of

beads. Every time the virus replicates, all the beads fall off the string and get re-strung. Say that humans are used to red bead viruses and birds have blue bead viruses. A pig gets infected with both kinds, they replicate inside the pig, and now you have viruses with red and blue beads. If the right beads are in the right places, these viruses can infect humans. Depending on what other beads are on the string, the infection may be mild or severe. The "beads" are designated with letters and numbers, as in H1N1.

[JitterbugPerfume]

15. and if it started there or not--

Those Factory farms are nasty and abusive. That is reason enough for me to buy direct from the farmer when possible.


By the way Kestrel, I very much appreciate your on the mark scientific information . :loveya:

[kestrel91316]

16. Well thank you very much. That's kind of you.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. That may very well be a side effect, depending on how severe this is

when all is said and done

[OneGrassRoot]

3. Yes, and that tidbit is one of the things that may bring about some positives...

or several potential "aha" moments come from this swine flu situation as I posted elsewhere:


1. Need for universal healthcare as others have indicated; poor, sick people affect the community as a whole, rich peeps aren't exempt from contagious illness.

2. More regulation/monitoring of food sources, and education about the same, especially factory farming (Patient Zero reportedly contracted the illness from a Smithfield Farms swine plant -- it simply may be a trigger to shine a brighter light on this issue.)

3. Preventive healthcare in general. I realize the swine flu is different in that it seems to affect those who are generally healthy, rather than the immune-compromised, but wellness -- preventing disease via proper basics of nutrition. living conditions, etc., which tie in with #1 and #2 and which are disintegrating for many along with the economy -- could be a topic discussed and embraced more than the populace has in my lifetime. We embrace DIETS and fads, but not genuine wellness.

[Mike 03]

4. This is interesting indeed. I hadn't heard it.

Did this rumor begin prior to April 17, does anyone know?

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. It started in Mexico after the dept of health tracked

all the way to patient zero

So hardly a rumor

[uppityperson]

5. CNN is hinting at whatever will sell ad space.

Factory farms have issues, but doubt that Influenza A H1N1 has anything to do with them. (influenza-a-hiney)

[Critters2]

7. Smithfield buys ad space. Just ask Paula Deen.

I don't think CNN would risk pissing off a major employer in the SE, if there weren't at least a kernel of something to this.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. The Health Department in Mexico tracked patient zero to the town of La Gloria

has been posted here several times

The town got a 60% infection rate

They are also covering this because Sanjay went there yesterday to make a point, even played with the kid

[dkofos]

6. That is because they are clueless idiots.

[kjackson227]

8. I was listening to either Bill Press or Ron Kuby (sp) and they had...

a guest on who said that he witnessed first-hand how they completely mutilate these hogs. He was so completely turned off by it, that he turned vegetarian. I'm almost there myself. I hardly eat ANY meat at all.

[Critters2]

10. When hogs die at these places, they just pile 'em up outside the buildings.

I've seen piles of dead hogs lots of times outside "confinements" in Iowa. That can't be safe.

[malaise]

18. Outsourcing to escape regulations

and low wages will only lead to situations like this one. Guess who will now spend the money for all the vaccines and preparations - the taxpayers yet again.
NAFTA flu is a good name for this one.

[AngryOldDem]

19. I'm hoping that when the urgency of this passes...

...attention is seriously focused on factory farming.

[Doremus]

20. I read something a while back about Smithfield recirculating the water.

The waste water normally flows outside the plant where water fowl and other birds have access to it.

Now, due to water shortages and/or other reasons, the water is re-circulated back INTO the building and reused. This is how you end up with a toxic soup of bird and porcine viruses. The only thing missing is a human to become infected, possibly adding a human virus to the mix that then mutates into a bug able to pass from human to human (as opposed to strictly from pig>>human).

I'm sure there are people who work at Smithfield who come into regular contact with the pigs and/or the waste water. Whether any of them, or people from the surrounding villages, became infected in this manner has yet to be proven. But the above scenario is exactly HOW it WOULD happen if it did.

[KoKo]

21. I wouldn't be surprised. Did you ever EAT Smithfield Pork? It tastes Cloned..

from a tasteless pig who never had a chance to "have a life." I can't tell you how many old recipes I've had come up tasteless using the "New Pork" which has "NO TASTE!"

It's very sad for the animals and for those trying to eat them.

I know..there are DU'ers who say we "Meat Eaters" are EVIL...and we should learn to live with Garbanzo Beans and organic lettuce.

Some of us really do like to cook with meat...but it's getting hopeless with the treatment of our animals, cloning and the rest. Tasteless meat...from abused or cloned or deprived fellow earth dwellers who didn't have a "taste of life in the wild" and it shows in what they are after they are killed.

It's all overwhelmingly sad. :cry: how it goes.

[Arugula Latte]

22. If people still want to eat meat, they really need to support local, humane farms.

Yes, the meat is probably costlier, but think of the health benefits, not to mention sparing animals from lives of pure torture and constant misery.