Earlier this week, researchers in China revealed they had found a new strain of H1N1 swine flu which they say has “all the essential hallmarks of a candidate pandemic virus.”
New Zealand’s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said this morning that discovering new viruses isn’t “uncommon,” and that we have to keep an eye out for them.
SAFE Director of Campaigns Ilan Goldberg said the fact that this virus has been found in pigs and pig farmers is no coincidence.
“The next pandemic is very likely to come to us by way of intensively farmed pigs or chickens, with the help of cattle.”
Disease can easily run rampant in intensive farms, where high numbers of genetically similar animals are confined closely together, favouring the emergence of new viruses through mutation. These new virus strains may then cross the species barrier to infect farm workers.
“We don’t want to be ready for the next pandemic. We want to prevent it,” says Goldberg. “The best way to do that is to curb our insatiable desire for animal products and transition towards an ecologically sustainable, plant-based future.”
And, should we immediately stop all imports of Chinese pork and chicken products? When are we going to have clear, transparent and mandatory country of origin food labeling on all food so that consumers can make an informed choice?
Human and Animal Habitats.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/destroyed-habitat-creates-the-perfect-conditions-for-coronavirus-to-emerge/
https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/voices/coronavirus-symptoms-latest-china-human-animal-health-outbreak-a9359841.html
https://www.worldanimalprotection.org/news/10-facts-you-should-know-about-factory-farmed-chickens
1st May 2009: Swine Flu Ancestor Born on US Factory Farms
Scientists have traced the genetic lineage of the new H1N1 swine flu to a strain that emerged in 1998 in U.S. factory farms, where it spread and mutated at an alarming rate. Experts warned then that a pocket of the virus would someday evolve to infect humans, perhaps setting off a global pandemic.
22nd April 2020, Updated 10th June: The Meat We Eat is a Pandemic Risk Too
“If you actually want to create global pandemics, then build factory farms.”
Excerpt:
It’s easy to point the finger at these “foreign” places and blame them for generating pandemics. But doing that ignores one crucial fact: The way people eat all around the world — including in the US — is a major risk factor for pandemics, too.
That’s because we eat a ton of meat, and the vast majority of it comes from factory farms. In these huge industrialized facilities that supply more than 90 percent of meat globally — and around 99 percent of America’s meat — animals are tightly packed together and live under harsh and unsanitary conditions.
“When we overcrowd animals by the thousands, in cramped football-field-size sheds, to lie beak to beak or snout to snout, and there’s stress crippling their immune systems, and there’s ammonia from the decomposing waste burning their lungs, and there’s a lack of fresh air and sunlight — put all these factors together and you have a perfect-storm environment for the emergence and spread of disease,“ said Michael Greger, the author of Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching.
To make matters worse, selection for specific genes in farmed animals (for desirable traits like large chicken breasts) has made these animals almost genetically identical. That means that a virus can easily spread from animal to animal without encountering any genetic variants that might stop it in its tracks. As it rips through a flock or herd, the virus can grow even more virulent.
Greger puts it bluntly: “If you actually want to create global pandemics, then build factory farms.”
The message for the world about eating plant based whole foods and not using animal products for food is plain and clear and gaining traction in those communities that are not already plant based in their diet.
May 2009: Swine Flu Pandemic Links to Factory Farming
Excerpt:
Our report [linked] analysed the latest scientific opinion on the significant risks posed to human health as a result of farming pigs in unnatural and inhumane conditions.
Several scientific sources report links between the current swine flu outbreak and the 1998 outbreak which became widespread throughout North American factory farms.
A number of independent research bodies including The Pew Commission, The US Council for Agriculture, Science and Technology and The American Public Health Association have warned of the public health risks resulting from industrialized animal agriculture.
Scientists have been aware of the risk of a swine flu pandemic for many years. The current H1N1 virus is similar to swine viruses that have been circulating in the United States since the 1990s and it is understood to have genetic components that are very similar to the H3N2 type virus which struck a North Carolina pig farm in 1998 and became widespread throughout North American factory farms.
April 2020: Farms Not Factories
“Eradicating one virus will not eradicate the system that is perpetuating the prevalence of murderous diseases. We need to consider how to mitigate and reduce the likelihood of this happening again. A large part of this is changing the way in which we cohabit this planet with animals.”
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