ChewsWise Blog

ChewsWise Blog

Did the Swine Flu Come From a Factory Pig Farm?

While the net is buzzing with talk that the swine flu originated from a factory pig farm, the evidence thus far has been compelling but inconclusive. As Grist's Tom Philpott asks: "...could the swine-flu outbreak have originated literally in the shadows of Granjas Carroll’s hog confinements, and not have some tie to intensive hog farming? That’s a question that health authorities have to vigorously pursue."

Although the Mexican government is testing a million pig farm in Perote, in Veracruz State, so far it has not come up with a smoking gun. The first case of the flu, however, originated in the same area.

The Times reports:

Mexico’s first known swine flu case, which was later confirmed, was from Perote, according to Health Minister José Ángel Córdova. The case involved a 5-year-old boy who recovered. 

But a spokesman for the plant said the boy was not related to a plant worker, that none of its workers were sick and that its hogs were vaccinated against flu.

Smithfield Foods, which owns a half-interest in the Mexican facility, is also trying to distance itself from the flu. In the absence of evidence linking the flu to the operation, you wouldn't expect otherwise.

The WSJ reports (subscription-$)

"We are very comfortable that our pork is safe," Smithfield president and chief executive Larry Pope said in an interview. "This is not a swine issue. This is a human-to-human issue."

Mr. Pope said Mexican authorities have been on at least some Smithfield farms in Mexico for "several days" testing hog herds to confirm that there is "no incidence of this virus on our farms."

Another opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal by Henry Miller, a former flu researcher and scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, however, clearly implicates - as Philpott does - intensive animal production: 





The Humane Society of the US also has a long, informative article about the relationship between factory animal production and flus, but again, does not have a smoking gun. (Linked by Ethicurean.) Which begs the question, do we need one? Or do we merely need to reduce the chances for this sort of outbreak by preventing conditions that breed them in the first place?

-Samuel Fromartz