Earlier this week Larry Pope, president and chief executive of Smithfield Foods of Virginia, insisted that “we are very comfortable that our pork is safe,” and that “we know of no pigs that are sick, no people on those farms that are sick and no people in our plants [who are sick],” and the U.S. pork industry is working very hard to distance itself and its Mexican operations from the recent outbreak of “swine flu”.
It’s worth nothing that the strain making all the headlines isn’t properly called swine flu, but is in fact a “reassortment” of human and swine flu strains designated H1N1. These types of reassortant and recombinant strains of flu virus are an increased risk with “confined animal feeding operations,” or CAFOs, which most people know as “factory farms.”
Last year, the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production published a report on CAFOs which contains this little gem:
The continual cycling of swine influenza viruses and other animal pathogens in large herds or flocks provides increased opportunity for the generation of novel viruses through mutation or recombinant events that could result in more efficient human-to-human transmission of these viruses. In addition, agricultural workers serve as a bridging population between their communities and the animals in large confinement facilities. This bridging increases the risk of novel virus generation in that human viruses may enter the herds or flocks and adapt to the animals.
Reassortant influenza viruses with human components have ravaged the modern swine industry. Such novel viruses not only put the workers and animals at risk of infections, but also potentially increase zoonotic disease transmission risk to the communities where the workers live. For instance, 64% of 63 persons exposed to humans infected with H7N7 avian influenza virus had serological evidence of H7N7 infection following the 2003 Netherlands avian influenza outbreak in poultry. Similarly, the spouses of swine workers who had no direct contact with pigs had increased odds of antibodies against swine influenza virus. Recent modeling work has shown that among communities where a large number of CAFO workers live, there is great potential for these workers to accelerate pandemic influenza virus transmission.
Pew Commission researchers met with counterparts from the University of Iowa where were studying avian flu, and their discussions created a concern about a nightmare scenario of an avian-swine-human superflu that could be a repeat of the 1918 flu pandemic, believed by some to be an avian-swine flu spread worldwide by farm workers traveling to WWI training camps.
Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said on Monday that they have identified what they believe was the earliest known case of this current outbreak. The 4-year-old boy was from the village of La Gloria, Veracruz – not far from the Granjas Carroll de Mexico plant, co-owned by Smithfield Foods. The local community had been protesting pollution at the plant when the child contracted the virus. Local citizens believe they were being made sick by air and water contamination from pig waste, following widespread outbreak of a “particularly powerful respiratory disease” in early April, according to the Associated Press.
The Mexican government is currently testing hogs from Smithfield’s farms throughout Mexico, and Smithfield and Granjas Carroll have agreed to adopt government recommendations to “begin reinforcing its biosecurity measures to prevent workers and animals from being infected,” according to Mexican newspaper Reforma - which is also reporting that people in La Gloria have been threatened, harassed and even arrested for demonstrating against the huge company.
David Kirby at Huffington Post has more, here and here.
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