Tom Philpott, GRIST, 25 April 2009
One flu east, one flu west
The outbreak of a new flu strain—a nasty mash-up of swine, avian, and human viruses—has infected 1,000 people in Mexico and the U.S., killing 68. The World Health Organization warned Saturday that the outbreak could reach global pandemic levels.
Is Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork packer and hog producer, linked to the outbreak? Smithfield operates massive hog-raising operations Perote, Mexico, in the state of Vera Cruz, where the outbreak originated. The operations, grouped under a Smithfield subsidiary called Granjas Carroll, raise 950,000 hogs per year, according to the company Web site.
On Friday, the U.S. disease-tracking blog Biosurveillance published a timeline of the outbreak containing this nugget, dated April 6 (major tip of the hat to Paula Hay, who alerted me to the Smithfield link on the Comfood listserv and has written about it on her blog, Peak Oil Entrepreneur):
Related:
Mike Davis: The swine flu crisis lays bare the meat industry’s monstrous power
I am very concerned that Israel will take advantage of this flu event to let loose a similar pathogen in Gaza. Then, just as they told residents, with Nazi-like “humor” to flee their homes to avoid the bombs, they would tell people to avoid crowds. As if.