The first known case of the current swine flu pandemic occurred amid a highly unusual outbreak of contagious respiratory ailments near a large factory hog farm in Mexico; and the public-health community had been warning for years that hog farms posed just such a threat. Read more here.
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About Me
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.
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My stoopid question for the day: Would switching to non-factory pig farming reduce the risk of Swine Flu to people? If so, how?
My understanding is that some farmers are selling ‘free-range’ pigs in the yuppie niche market. Problem: Some of these FR pigs are infected with trichinosis. Moreover in recent years, some restaurants have been serving their pork rare, regardless of how customers ordered it. That happened to me once, and I got very upset about it. However cooks in Australia, NZ, and in the UK may actually habla Ingles.
Anyway, market forces are resurrecting an old public health problem that was thought to have been mostly solved a long time ago. At best, ‘free-range’ pig farming is a mixed bag.
I am glad that Jennifer and Larry have brouht up this very important issue.
1) Swine flu is even weaker than an ” ordinary” flu. It is very sad that media scares the people.
2) To Larry,
It is a known for people who are dealing with animals , that cramped conditions , are a good way to create and spread viruses. For example , the avian flu virus originated in factory hen farms.
3) Not only are free range animals happier , they also diminish the risk for diseases. Re trichinosos, I doubt very much it had to do with free range conditions. It is true that wild boars carry the disease, as much wildlife , but with proper cooking it all disappears….