American Co. Smithfield Foods untreated pig waste fields in La Gloria Mex likely source of Swine flu

[demo dutch]

Source: www.grist.org

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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, (a Smithfield subsidiary )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.

From what I can tell, the possible link to Smithfield has not been reported in the U.S. press. Searches of Google News and the websites of the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal all came up empty. The link is being made in the Mexican media, however. “Granjas Carroll, causa de epidemia en La Gloria,” declared a headline in the Vera Cruz-based paper La Marcha. No need to translate that, except to point out that La Gloria is the village where the outbreak seems to have started. Judging from the article, Mexican authorities treat hog CAFOs with just as much if not more indulgence than their peers north of the border, to the detriment of surrounding communities and the general public health. Get this:

De acuerdo con uno de los habitantes de la comunidad, Eli Ferrer Cortés, los desechos fecales y orgánicos que produce Granjas Carroll no son tratados adecuadamente, lo que genera contaminación del agua y del viento en la region.

My rough translation: According to one community resident, the organic and fecal waste produced by Granjas Carrol isn’t adequately treated, creating water and air pollution in the region. I witnessed—and smelled—the same thing in Hardin County, Iowa, a couple of years ago, another area marked by intensive industrial hog production. The article goes on to say that area residents have long complained of “fetid odors” in the air and water, and swarms of flies hovering around waste lagoons. Like their counterparts who live in CAFO-heavy U.S. areas, they also complain of respiratory ailments. Now, with 30 percent of the area’s residents now infected with the virulent flu bug, people are demanding that state and federal authorities inspect hog operations there. So far, reports La Marcha, the response has been: nada.


Read more: http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-25-swine-flu-smithfield/

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follow-up here:
http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-28-more-smithfield-swine/

[WhiteTara]

1. that was my first thought

how can you kill 950,000 pigs a year and keep it clean? Right. They sent the plant to Mexico so no one would know they weren't keeping it clean. I hope they are fined out of existence!

[Creena]

5. Mine too.

It's impossible to keep a clean factory (it's NOT a farm) with that many animals. It was only a matter of time before something like this happened. Just thinking about the amount of waste produced and the disposal conditions...:puke:

Makes me glad that I get my meats from a local farmer. There's something to say about the ability to visit the actual farm your food comes from and see the conditions in which the animals live. The animals are giving their life to provide me sustenance, the least I can do is make sure they're properly cared for until that point.

[niyad]

7. welcome to DU

[WhiteTara]

25. Hey Creena

Welcome to DU :hi:

[TheWraith]

2. Nobody has yet provided ANY EVIDENCE of this.

It's completely rumor-driven.

[kestrel91316]

4. The existence of Smithfield's CAFO in Mexico isn't a rumor, it's a fact.

The existence of its manure lagoon isn't a rumor, it's a fact.

The large number of probable flu cases in the area of the CAFO isn't a rumor, it's a fact.

Sigh. If you had some formal education in epidemiology, you'd GET IT.

[MNDemNY]

6. There are numerous manure lagoons here in the US.

And, apparently, it is a waste of tax-payer dollars to address the problems these create.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

14. It's a fact that there's no evidence that Smithfield pig farms had anything to do with this.

It's a fact that you're making shit up.

[Javaman]

19. Educate yourself...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology

[uppityperson]

12. I agree. There is no evidence of this. Factory farms have problems for sure, but not this

I wonder how they will try to tie in the mixture of avian, porcine and human strains that is mixed up in this type a hini flu.

Shut down or change factory farms for other reasons, not because of a rumor that H1N1 flu came from them. There are mega pig farms in the USA and Canada and other places also and, oh, preaching to the choir here where others will poopoo me. so to speak

[Javaman]

20. ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology

[uppityperson]

27. ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WTF

[Javaman]

29. ...

www.en.wikipedia.org/eatme

[uppityperson]

30. ...

www.en.wikipedia.org/inyourdreams

[Junkdrawer]

24. CDC Confirms Ties to Virus First Discovered in U.S. Pig Factories

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5569987&mesg_id=5569987

[Junkdrawer]

3. The NAFTA trots...

Ain't Globalization Gtrand....

[TimesSquareCowboy]

22. That is perfect - 'NAFTA Flu' - let's get that one going.

[sakabatou]

8. Was that the same plant, mentioned by Franken

that had pig shit geysers?

[nichomachus]

13. Why do I immediately think

of Rush Limbaugh when you say "pig shit geyser?"

[nichomachus]

15. Here's photographic evidence of the cause of the swine flu

[Grinchie]

9. How about we get a photpragph of the facility and make an informed decision

Regarding the facility?

We have plenty of CAFO's in the United States that are very filthy, and the air pollution and health hazards that are emitted have been subject to EPA monitoring for decades. Not only are the odors toxic, but Pig Shit contains toxins produced from gut bacteria that are extremely allergenic, and are linked to health problems such as asthms, bronchitis and other lung ailments.

This toxin is also very long lived, so you can walk through the barnyard years after the pigs have gone, and track this stuff into your house. God forbid you have carpeting.

This is why real farm homesteads have wood floors, or other impervious materials to allow for effective cleaning.

CAFO's are a gift from Clinton to Tyson, and the practice has spread worldwide as we spread our sick agricultural practices all over the world.

[Turbineguy]

10. It would be good to get this properly investigated.

Of course, we could just blame them and be done with it. After all, it is a big company and that alone should prove their guilt.

[get the red out]

11. What can we expect?

Filth breeds disease. If the filth is on a massive scale, and near people, the people will suffer from this. Factory farms are dangerous to animals and humans alike. But we would rather have super-cheap meat so we can afford to eat enough to get heart disease and cancer without worrying about where it came from. That's the American way. By GAWD you're nobody 'til you've had a by-pass!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

16. Actually, I'm pretty sure that microbes breed disease.

The idea that disease is some sort of divine punishment for sin has been rejected by leading Biblical scientists for at least a few years now.

[get the red out]

21. I have no clue why you think I was being Biblical

I don't know enough about the Bible to be Biblical. And I have no idea how "sin" got into this? Filthy conditions contribute greatly to disease.

Filth is a breeding GROUND for microbes. Is that acceptable? Or does that have some kind of religious connotation that I am unaware of as well?

[Dr.Phool]

17. Call it by it's proper name. Smithfield Flu.

[Javaman]

18. What? a factory farm is potentially the one at fault? color me surprised!!!

:sarcasm:

[Control-Z]

23. I saw a brief report

about Smithfield over the weekend. Instead of addressing the plant, and the contamination suspected by nearby residents, they veered off to the "swine" flu name, and how it was hurting their reputation (and sales) because people were afraid they would catch the flu eating pork product. The report was geared almost entirely around the food aspect, as if the stupid public would have all their fears allayed by this one single tidbit of knowledge. (that pork was safe to eat)

I gave some thought to posting about it at the time, but didn't want to add yet another conspiracy theory thread to the already long list. I do believe, however, that this is something that needs to be investigated thoroughly. It makes a whole lot of sense given the location of the outbreak, the time line, and the spread of infection.

[KamaAina]

26. What did they know and when did they know it?

The resulting delay in preparations is already proving very costly there, and will soon be so here, too, unless we act pronto. :scared:

[gula]

28. There was a report on the radio here

about this. It also mentioned that the locals who dared to complain were, to put it mildly, harrassed.

This needs an investigation.

[Karenina]

31. Oh, ick.

[ThomWV]

32. Can you people not read? "Residents believed the outbreak had been caused ..."

The very first word in the OP tell you all you need to know, and that is that this is a worthless waste of print space.

You tell me what expertise "Residents" of a mexican pig waste dump site have in biology and why I should take a single word one of them says as a reasonable explanation of the origin of a virus. Why don't I listen to my dog's opinion about astronomy, he as about the same amount of training on the subject as a Mexican peasant does about a virus?

[Junkdrawer]

33. CDC Confirms Ties to Virus First Discovered in U.S. Pig Factories

...

The worst plague in human history was triggered by an H1N1 avian flu virus, which jumped the species barrier from birds to humans and went on to kill as many as 50 to 100 million people in the 1918 flu pandemic. No disease, war or famine ever killed so many people in so short a time. We then passed the virus to pigs, where it has continued to circulate, becoming one of the most common causes of respiratory disease on North American pig farms.

In August 1998, however, a barking cough resounded throughout a North Carolina pig factory in which all the thousands of breeding sows fell ill. A new swine flu virus was discovered on that factory farm, a human-pig hybrid virus that had picked up three human flu genes. By the end of that year, the virus acquired two gene segments from bird flu viruses as well, becoming a never-before-described triple reassortment virus—a hybrid of a human virus, a pig virus, and a bird virus—that triggered outbreaks in Texas, Minnesota, and Iowa.

Within months, the virus had spread throughout the United States. Blood samples taken from 4,382 pigs across 23 states found that 20.5% tested positive for exposure to this triple hybrid swine flu virus by early 1999, including 100% of herds tested in Illinois and Iowa, and 90% in Kansas and Oklahoma. According to the current analysis, it is from this pool of viruses that the current swine flu threat derives three-quarters of its genetic material.

...

http://www.hsus.org/farm/news/ournews/swine_flu_virus_origin_1998_042909.html

[ThomWV]

34. Read the paragraph in bold and see how many errors you can find in it

I can find four fatal flaws in the final two sentences that make it pure jibberish.

It just amazes me how many people pay no attention what so ever to what they read. Look at the words, think about what they mean.

[Junkdrawer]

35. Oh, pray, please detail why you find it "jibberish". n/t

[ThomWV]

38. Here are two examples at a glance

"A new swine flu virus was discovered on that factory farm, a human-pig hybrid virus that had picked up three human flu genes. By the end of that year, the virus acquired two gene segments?

First off the "human-pig virus" did not "pick up" human flu genes from anywhere - it is a nonsensical thing to say and only the most gullible would find it in any way a reasonable statement. I will grant that it is possible that an existing gene may have spontaneously (meaning 'by cause unknown') mutated to the same form as a "human flu gene", whatever that is but I reject the idiotic phrase that somehow a virus magically reached out and 'picked up" anything at all. Similar logic applies to the following phrase "the virus acquired two gene segments". A virus has no ability to "acquire" anything at all.

However that still doesn't excuse the simple fact that the article - as reprinted above - relies on Mexican peasants as a source of expertise in the progression of genetic modification in a virus - and that is preposterous all by itself.

[Junkdrawer]

39. You really are grasping at straws.

Pathetic. As are your comparisons of your dog to "Mexican peasants". And not a little racist.

[Prometheus Bound]

40. It says local health officials agreed with the residents.

So that makes your dismissal of "Mexican peasants" as more than a bit ignorant.

[Chiquitita]

41. Mexican peasants? Que bonito.

Why, oh why do you have to insult Mexicans who are standing up to Carroll Farms? Are you of the superior American Warrior class?

[AngryAmish]

36. Do you understand factory farming makes this type of flue less likely?

Facotry farming tends to create a monoculture - pigs and pigs only. There is less contact with people, birds, badgers, etc. Fewer chances for interspecies swapping of viruses.

[Junkdrawer]

37. Actually, virus mutations are increasing on factory farms...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x305892

[Junkdrawer]

42. Here's the article referenced in the RealNews video...

...

One of the first signs of trouble was a barking cough that resounded through a North Carolina farm in August 1998. Every pig in an operation of 2400 animals sickened, with symptoms similar to those caused by the human flu: high fever, poor appetite, and lethargy. Pregnant sows were hit hardest, and almost 10% aborted their litters, says veterinary virologist Gene Erickson of the Rollins Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Raleigh. Many piglets that survived in utero were later born small and weak, and some 50 sows died.

The culprit, a new strain of swine influenza to which the animals had little immunity, left veterinarians and virologists alike puzzled. Although related flu strains in birds, humans, and pigs outside North America constantly evolve, only one influenza subtype had sickened North American pigs since 1930. That spell was suddenly broken about 4 years ago, and a quick succession of new flu viruses has been sweeping through North America’s 100 million pigs ever since. This winter, for example, up to 15% of the 4- to 7-week-old piglets on a large Minnesota farm died, even though their mothers had been vaccinated against swine flu, says veterinary pathologist Kurt Rossow of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

It seems that after years of stability, the North American swine flu virus has jumped onto an evolutionary fast track, churning out variants every year. Changes in animal husbandry, including increased vaccination, may be spurring this evolutionary surge. And researchers say that the resulting slew of dramatically different swine flu viruses could spell danger for humans, too. The evolving swine flu “increases the likelihood that a novel virus will arise that is transmissible among humans,” says Richard Webby, a molecular virologist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

...

http://birdflubook.com/resources/WUETHRICH1502.pdf