"However, Smithfield's statement fails to mention that countless residents of La Gloria were routinely and relentlessly
exposed
to airborne droplets of pig feces and decayed tissue for an
undetermined number of years, thanks to toxic and sick-making clouds
blowing outward from Granja Carrol's so-called "oxidation ponds"--or
pig sewage lagoons. And that they have long complained of respiratory
illnesses, well before their children started dying in March.
Nor
does
the company's statement explain that contracting the H1N1
influenza virus does NOT necessarily require that one "have contact
with hogs"; in fact, the flu virus is spread via tiny droplets of
infected matter--feces, body fluids--that reach the mucous membranes
and lungs when someone touches a contaminated surface before rubbing
his eyes, for example, or when he unwittingly inhales airborne,
virus-containing waste droplets floating around his town, courtesy of a
nearby pig or poultry
CAFO."
Pictures of conditions at the Smithfield Foods plant are on this website; they are also on the news website EnlaceVeracruz212 from 2006.
Image above of a rotting pig carcass floating in the oxidation pond/pig-waste lagoon.
Smithfield Foods Implicated; From the latest edition of Mexico City's La Jornada (translated for you by LitBrit): excerpt follows:
"When reading about and reporting on swine flu--a virus--it's important to bear a couple of things in mind.
First, this swine flu virus contains elements of avian, human, and swine influenza. According to the CDC's partner website PandemicFlu.gov, avian (bird) flu is transmitted thus (emphasis mine):
Infected
birds shed influenza virus in their saliva, nasal secretions, and
feces. Susceptible birds become infected when they have contact with
contaminated excretions or with surfaces that are contaminated with
excretions or secretions. Wild bird
avian influenza viruses of low pathogenicity mix with avian viruses in
domesticated birds and become highly pathogenic in poultry.
Domestic poultry may become infected with avian influenza virus through
direct contact with infected waterfowl or other infected poultry or
through contact with surfaces (such as dirt or cages) or materials
(such as feces or feed) that have been contaminated with droppings that
harbor the low-pathogenicity virus.
In other words,
low pathogenic avian influenza, which naturally occurs in wild birds, can spread to domestic birds; the relatively mildly-pathogenic flu can become "highly pathogenic" when domestic poultry come in contact with infected birds--
or with feed or feces that has been contaminated by the droppings of wild birds. And from there, other animals can contract the virus. For example, during the last major flu outbreak, the
H5N1 avian flu virus also infected cats in Europe."
Second, the aforementioned CAFO--Granjas Carrol, subsidiary of
Smithfield Foods--is essentially an enormous, concentrated hog farm,
and while hog farms are not what anyone would call the cleanest places
in the world, one would expect the massive doses of antibiotics CAFO's
routinely administer to confined livestock would keep infections at
bay, right?
In a word, NO.
Influenza is a
virus, not a bacteria, and antibiotics treat, and prevent the spread of,
bacterial
infections--this is likely why the drugged-up pigs didn't get sick all
that time, meanwhile the unprotected residents of nearby La Gloria
constantly complained of respiratory infections, most likely
bacterial--at first. At some point in the recent past, however, a new
mutation of the flu virus, the triple-whammy H1N1 bird-pig-human combo
bug, found its way to the infamous clouds of pig waste and flies
drifting across--and spreading outward from--the "oxidation ponds"
about which Granjas Carrol/Smithfield released only partial
information, and about which they are still remaining (mostly) quiet.
Even as people have begun dying of those infections in what are, quite
frankly, alarming numbers.
Finally, a question: what of
the connection between avian flu and this new swine flu, with its human, avian, and swine DNA--is there one?
He
[Mexico's Chairman of the Committee on the Environment, Marco Antonio
Núñez López] was referring to another CAFO, this one containing
poultry, called Granjas de Bachoco, located near the state capital of
Xalapa. He said there was an epidemic
of avian flu among the chickens being raised there, but that this was
being kept quiet so as not to interfere with exports.
Influenza-infected chickens raise the risk of cross-infection to pigs
in the same area, scientists say.
Further reading:
The article in Grist, by Tom Philpott, that connects Smithfield to the Swine Flu outbreak
The World Health Organization's Swine Flu information center
The Center for Disease Control's Swine Flu information center
