Tom Philpott, Grist's agriculture writer, writes that media in Mexico has linked the outbreak of a new form of swine flu to a huge hog factory. He writes:
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 Carrol, raise 950,000 hogs per year,
according to the company Web site—a level nearly equal to Smithfield’s total U.S. hog production.
According to the disease-tracking Biosurveillance blog:
According to the disease-tracking Biosurveillance blog:
Residents [of Perote] 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, 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, [writes Philpott] 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.
Photos of hog farms and their vast waste lagoons are readily available. I'll spare you because the story is still speculative and not proven.
