The flu virus mutates regularly. Swine flu has been around for a very long time, long before factory farms. By now it could be called human flu. Some viruses do jump from species to species (ebola, HIV, are other examples) and sometimes have to do with farmers living closely with livestock or hunters keeping live animals at home, a frequent occurrence in Asia and Africa. Factory farms have other problems, such as excessive use of antibiotics, but I doubt there's any connection with this virus.
From time to time there is a flu pandemic and some of them are much more dangerous than others. It's too early to tell what's happening with this one. Obviously it has spread fairly fast in Mexico, but the statistics coming from there are highly suspect as they always are at the start of something like this. Flu this late in the flu season is unusual and it is possible this will lessen in the summer and come back strongly next Fall. It is encouraging the cases in the US are mild.
Growing up it was instilled in me to succeed and strive. Been there, done that. Now i think simple is better. Good friends, an honest and transparent life style and thoughts of future travel fill my head. You have a great attitude and Im sure something will come along just in time..
I saw a news story last night where the Mexican government tracked down the first case of this new flu. The inhabitants of a small village who all contracted it live close to a huge agri-business pig farm which crowds pigs into small concrete cells and loads them up with antibiotics so that they don't get ill from the fetid conditions. The pig farm has huge open ponds of porcine waste that they theorize may have seeped into the local water supply.
Pigs are unique in that they are susceptible to infection by porcine viruses as well as human viruses and they theorized that this new virus which is a synthesis of two swine viruses, an avian virus and a human virus developed under these conditions.
__________________ Crusty "If you come to a fork in the road, take it." Austin, TX "Rancho Deluxe"
". . . a huge agri-business pig farm which crowds pigs into small concrete cells and loads them up with antibiotics so that they don't get ill from the fetid conditions."
It's sickening. The general public is so far removed from where their food comes from, so there is no public outcry. Bottom line, it seems people just want food produced cheaply. There are still sustainable farmers out there. You can actually visit some farms. Quality costs more up front, but the savings are returned in saved medical expenses and better health. Our thriving, healthy backyard chickens are a whole world apart from almost unrecognizable factory birds! End of rant.
Yeah but Egypt killing all the pigs when it has not found an infected one and it has been transmitted by people and they have not been in contact with pigs, is horribly devestating to families where that is their source of income already challenged economically. So unless what I read is not true, the measure is to curb panic and not through necessity or to alleviate risk of spreading this new flu.
__________________ CJ The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.-Eleanor Roosevelt It is never too late to be who you might have been.-George Eliot
Remember the first outbreak of swine flu originally broke out in 1918, not 1976. There were no factory farms back then. And, its only called swine flu because it was originally found, back in 1918, in swine. Not one hog in Mexico or the US has been found to have the illness.
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