Swine Flu May Have Evolved At US Hog Farms

With swine flu panic sweeping the globe, scientists appear to finally be getting closer to determining its origin -- and it's not quite as clear-cut as originally thought. The Wall Street Journal reports that the current problem may have actually begun in the United States.

A picture is now emerging of how U.S. and Mexican officials, with a key assist from a Canadian government lab, first realized they faced a new type of disease and began racing to isolate its earliest origins. Until recently, Mexico was widely assumed to be ground zero. Now, however, some California doctors are questioning that.

The four earliest confirmed cases are divided evenly between California and Mexico. In fact, it appears two children in California got sick in late March, several days before the first two known Mexico cases in early April.

And even if the first case was in Mexico, the United States won't get off scot-free, according to Grist's Tom Philpott. The virus may have evolved under US farming conditions before it made the jump to humans near the US/Mexico border:

In an interview with Science Magazine, the CDC's chief virologist, Ruben Donis' essentially confirmed the reading of the current swine flu strain made by New Scientist: that it evolved from a strain that cropped up in U.S. hog farms in 1998.

And then there's this amazing quote given to Wired's Brandon Keim:

“We haven’t found evidence of infected pigs,” said Ian Lipkin, a Columbia University epidemiologist and member of the World Health Organization’s surveillance network. “But even if we never find that smoking pig, we can surmise that this is probably where it came from.”

Comments

[vonlette]

At the supermarket the choices we make can have an enormous impact on the lives of millions of animals.

As we have managed to gradually take away the freedoms of the individuals that make up our ‘livestock’ and place them in continually more hideous living conditions, so the general population have become almost mass brainwashed to accept that these individual animals, destined to become our food, don’t need or deserve compassion.

This in itself is a fascinating if not alarming phenomenon. We have herd mentality regarding herd animals.

Guilt or indifference?

These animals are making the ultimate sacrifice. They are dying so that we can eat them. This gives us a direct and very intimate relationship with the individual animal. We are actually going to digest it!

Why then are we not more concerned about it’s welfare? Is it guilt? Is that we don’t want to associate a living breathing animal with what’s on our dinner plate? Is disassociation a coping mechanism?

We are heartbroken to learn that in China dogs and cats are skinned alive so that we can have fur trimmings on our raincoats, however the reality of the lives of the individual cow, chicken or sheep, that make up the millions and millions of animals that suffer stress and fear and pain just as any others do, seems not to matter to us.

Are we only going to question factory farming when something like the Swine Flu comes along, something that could affect us?

[TazoWolf]

Decent Q&A about Swine flu here, backing up words with scientific explanations people can understand to dispel some fears and explain where the real concerns lie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma7IeWRH7y0

[TruthmongerII]

Factory farms are disgusting and the animals are unhealthy. In California we passed a proposition requiring chickens to have a decent environment, with room to move around, flap their wings etc. Nothing radical -- hardly a utopian farm where the birds peck for worms in organic foliage. Just reasonable conditions for a living creature who has rights. What will the growers do? Pack up and move south to Mexico, so they can spread more disease for profits. What a bunch of crooks! Who do they think they are, senators?

[AbbieHoffman2]

This whoel thing just makes me happy I'm a VEGETARIAN

[oldibtgdy]

does anyone know the probability of observing a never-before-seen virus with no known "geneology" --- that is, no obvious pre-mutation version? the data's out there. simple T test would tell a lot.. null hypothesis ---> the virus evolved. if it's really unlikely to have evolved, it's more likely it was manufactured. if that's the case, we're looking at a different set of circumstances since the timing of it's emergence is exactly right to mean massive contraction of travel and thus spending over the vacation season... wonder who that benefits?

[patilee]

I'm waiting for the Tofu flu.

[AbbieHoffman2]

If Tofu was being produced in feces-ridden, over antibiotic facilities, I would worry to.

[GregoryHaralson]

Gregory Haralson recommends this article

[tiredofit10]

so what are all of those right wing wingnut commentators going to say? they had blamed it on the Mexicans! Won't be the first time they are proven wrong and it won't be the last.

[rf-hawaii]

Okay, so pig and chicken farms are effective incubators for new strains of flu. So let's give them new regulations and perhaps some monetary incentive to clean up the problem. Smaller farms and better isolation from human populations would go a long way.

Sadly, the drug companies will be lobbying against this. They made way too much money from the current scare.

[dlo2]

Medline sources state that this flu probably originates in the bird population and pigs, like humans, become reservoirs...Egypt is killing all their pigs...We need to get the facts straight instead of sacrificing sentient, intelligent animals...public health scientists need to give timely yet accurate data. Caution with semantics!

[YourProtector]

Stop looking for the origin and start focusing on ending it!
Watch this clip: a guy outruns the swine flu chasing him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4iTo_5r52E

[Foreground]

Knowing where it came from will let us understand the conditions that caused the mutation and the vectors it traveled, both of which would be extremely helpful for treating and containing this outbreak, as well as predicting and preventing a future one.

[rf-hawaii]

Large groups of pigs or chickens at farms and inadequate isolation from humans is clearly the problem.

Flu likes to spread and mutate. The more organisms in a group, the more chances for mutation. And there need to be humans nearby to enable the jump from animal to human. Both of these problems seem relatively easy to address if the industry is provided with sufficient incentive.

[kamachanda]

Here in the corn belt, we are being treated to local corporate hog farmers on the news complaining that it "shouldn't be called swine flu". Bad for business you know, people stop eating pork. Last night, one of the hired hands was on holding a piglet in his arms talking about how this little fellow couldn't hurt anybody.... He got the lead because his child was being picked on in school. Daddy being a pig farmer was going to infect everybody....
Corporate types seem to thrive on ignorance.
There is no reason to panic yet and I urge everyone to keep that option open for later should it become necessary. Although finding the first case may help our medical responders, I think we should not lose sight of the unhealthy conditions at all these factory farms and their potential for affecting us all. We will be hearing lots of stories about agriculture which will be similar to global warming denials and no-scientific evidence defense big tobacco used successfully for so many years.
If that's too much for our corporate owned media, we can always just stop worrying about the economy and global warming because swine flu is coming to get us all.

[billw8017]

Right. Let's not panic. We can panic later when it is necessary.

Our agricultural systems seem dangerous. The tight pens, the pollution, and the abuse of antibiotics are like a recipe for creating human diseases. The species barrier is not sufficient protection. Gene modified crops do not seem fully examined, but some of the modifications may have unpleasant effects. Mono culture, though effecient, seems to be destroying some foods; for example, we are in a second generation of bananas since the once popular sort became too liable to plant diseases.

Toss in war and poverty to maximize human disease conditions. These are interesting times.

[Stilts9]

Real Americans don't do disease.

USA USA USA

[Kaviraj]

blah blah blah.

[Imago]

Okay, folks, before you light those torches and sharpen those pitchforks, and head towards Smithfield, please read this:

http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-29-swine-flu-pork-farm-reax/

Among other things he says, "Yet in exposing and attacking the many and often grotesquely obvious excesses of factory farms, I believe it is essential at all times to be fair, be accurate, and not amplify allegations which may be unsubstantiated—not least because amplifying an unfounded or premature allegation tends to erode the credibility of the critic."

This isn't proven yet. Tom Philpott made some big leaps -- logical ones, but not factually supported ones. Factory farming sucks, but it isn't necessarily the culprit here.

[Kaviraj]

Yeah keeop your eyes firmly shut. Maybe the flue will not find you then. Wake up man, factory farming IS the culprit.

[Mugzi]

That's what I've heard...animals held in crowded pens,deplorable conditions, the corp farms in Mexico are probably worse. I hope a scientist comes forth and gives scientific explanation...

[lilian101]

How about China and the infatuation with keeping of geese with pigs? The flu used to travel with the birds to and from China, and China's pig and geese herds and flocks. Now it just some illegal aliens working in the food service industry without health screening because that would be racist and culturally insensitive?

[springsm]

Ohmygawd..wait until Lou Baby and the right wing radio hosts get a dose of this. Oh my!!! Of course it started in the US..that is where the greed is, the farms are..and if not they are owned by someone here..and oh my we can't blame the Mexicans. Except for finding the origin in order to find out what, why and how so it can be corrected, I wonder if it is necessary to obsess on where it started. i.e. a four year old boy, for heaven's sakes. The bigots might have to give up trashing the Hispanics now...maybe.

[zanzig]

I can't wait to hear what Malkin has to say now.

[lilian101]

Hispanic is a fighting word to a Puerto Rican

[rf-hawaii]

Where is unimportant. How to keep it from happening again is everything.