H1N1 Found in First US Commercial Swine Herd - Keep Your Eye on Factory Farms, China, and the Birds

On Monday, the USDA reported that pigs in a commercial swine herd at an Indiana factory farm had tested positive for novel H1N1 influenza virus. It was the first time that pigs raised for meat in the US had been found with signs of the bug. Last month, show pigs at the Minnesota State Fair also tested positive for H1N1.

This time, 3,000 "finishing hogs" being fattened for slaughter were suspected of contracting the disease. "Information points to a recent exposure of the pigs with facility caretakers who were exhibiting influenza-like symptoms," said the website PigProgress.net. "Recovered healthy pigs are being sent to slaughter through normal marketing channels and State public health officials have been notified of the situation."

Agriculture and health officials have adopted a low-key posture toward the outbreak, noting that herd surveillance is working, and that the pigs in question cleared the virus and recovered on their own. They insisted there was no threat to public health.

The USDA has long pointed out that H1N1 cannot be transmitted by eating or handling pork products, and that US pork is completely safe. And though it would appear that people can infect pigs with H1N1, it is not clear whether live pigs can infect people. For now, officials are far more worried about the former than the latter.

The name and location of the Indiana pig producer have not been released, but with at least 3,000 hogs, it would qualify as a "Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation," or CAFO - better known as a factory farm. Meanwhile, the USDA has stated there is "currently" no evidence that the 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus originated in a CAFO. "Animals reared in a CAFO setting have a lower incidence of infectious disease compared to those kept in free range operations," the agency says.

There may be no proof that the current virus emerged from a CAFO, but there are plenty of suspicions - compounded by the fact that six of the eight genetic components in the currently circulating virus are direct descendants of a swine flu virus that first emerged in North Carolina a decade ago. That bug was discovered in August 1998, at a 2,400-head breeding facility in Newton Grove, NC, where all the sows suddenly came down with a phlegmatic cough.

Meanwhile, the bad news out of Indiana could not come at a more delicate time for the US hog industry, which has been hammered by falling prices due to a global economic slump and trepidation about US pork, especially among some of the biggest foreign customers - such as China.

Just last week, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that China "intends to re-open" its vast market to US pork and live swine, following a ban that was swiftly imposed last May when H1N1 was first identified.

At the time, China was the fastest growing market for U.S. pork, valued at some $560 million in exports. US officials had pressed upon the Chinese on "the need for China to remove all restrictions on trade in pork products related to the H1N1 virus, given clear guidance from international bodies like the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), World Health Organization (WHO), and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), that there is no risk to humans from consuming properly prepared pork and pork products," a USDA press release said.

Pig growers from North Carolina to North Dakota will be watching closely for the next move by the Chinese. Those $560 million are sorely missed. But the latest discovery in Indiana will do little to enhance the reputation of US pork.

Finally, there is the very real fear that the virus might jump from pigs to birds, and from there, a newly mutated virus could become a deadly avian flu for people.

While researching my new book, Animal Factory (St. Martin's Press, 2010) I spent weeks touring the CAFO-heavy counties of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, North Carolina and elsewhere. One thing that struck me was how close the massive pig farms were situated to the equally huge poultry operations.

Swine and poultry CAFOs are supposed to be completely closed environments, in order to protect the animals from outside diseases. But they are not hermetically sealed, and pathogens can enter and exit in many ways - including workers, and flies, a proven vector of CAFO diseases. Some swine CAFO's recover water from their waste lagoons and recycle it back into the animal housing to wash out the barns, while also cutting down on dwindling groundwater supplies. But wildfowl routinely land in CAFO lagoons, where they can easily shed influenza virus into the water. This can also happen at facilities that use water from nearby ponds or rivers.

The USDA is worried enough about swine-to-avian transmission to have conducted at least one study on the subject, citing "concern that birds might be affected by the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus."

USDA scientists took a 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus isolate from a person and used it to infect four species of birds: ducks, chickens, turkeys & quail. None of them "became clinically ill after clinical infection," the agency said, adding that officials "continue to monitor the evolution of influenza viruses in birds in case changes occur and the H1N1 flu virus adapts and can spread in poultry."

The study "has been scientifically reviewed and concluded that these four species of
birds are not likely to be vehicles for transmission of the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza
virus," the USDA said, adding that its study "will be published in a scientific journal in the near future."

Because H1N1 virus continues to evolve, USDA vows to remain vigilant, especially after receiving a report from the Chilean government that the virus has been found in turkeys in that country. "USDA is validating these results," the agency said, and it "plans to conduct experiments in birds to determine how the Chilean H1N1 isolate compares to the novel North American H1N1 isolate in the ability to infect turkeys and
other birds."

Meanwhile, the USDA is imploring farmers not to let us disease-ridden humans around their delicate, vulnerable swine. "Permit only essential workers and vehicles to enter the farm to limit the chances of bringing the virus from an outside source," it says gravely.

In other words, if you have so much as a sniffle, don't get anywhere near a pig.

 

Comments

[toxicbrainpoison]

But still, maybe Egypt wasnt right to slaughter all their pigs. Like people, the pigs will get over it.

[luckyone77]

H1N1 whistleblower arrested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OYVws9uJbk

[toxicbrainpoison]

Ukraine is also shamelessly putting their country into a state of panic for the upcoming elections. They closed school for 3 weeks and they have a very low number of sick people with H1N1. Its political posturing.

[Dice Klay]

every year its a new name for a flu...last year sit was SARS and before that avian flu. Just to sell news, medicine, etc. Its a big scam. Its JUST a flu.

[KIVPossum]

I agree with you. The news has to grab something and milk it to death.

Last week Ukraine closed all their schools because of the scare (as if the entire nation had the same incidence in every village). Not to be outdone ours will be closed this week. Half the city is running around in masks....they wear them to walk to the bar, then sit in a crowded room with the mask pulled down.

[mofmars333]

The following is but a tidbit of what's currently out there telling it like it is:

Soon, more doctors will be joining the ranks of truth to this matter & we can begin our road to recovery.

"Swine Flu -- One of the Most Massive Cover-ups in American History"

Find out all the reasons why pregnant women should NEVER get the H1N1 vaccine.

Renowned expert exposes major H1N1 myths.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/11/03/What-We-Have-Learned-About-the-Great-Swine-Flu-Pandemic.aspx

Some Pregnant Women Fearful of H1N1 Vaccine

http://miscarriage.about.com/b/2009/09/29/some-pregnant-women-fearful-of-h1n1-vaccine.htm

"Swine Flu Government Data Scam"

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/731.html

Poisoning attempt’ charges filed against French H1N1 campaign

http://www.fleshandstone.net/healthandsciencenews/1662.html www.Nutronix.com/naturalsolutions

See this 6 part exposure to boot what the French people have done;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0JqQyl09zQ&feature=player_embedded

Remember charges filed by Jane Burgermeister, too, & read all articles here;

http://www.theflucase.com/

Add your voice & help out at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-christian-hall/thimerosol-in-flu-vaccine_b_342736.html&cp

[Shirley Fisk]

11/6/09
1am
Alexandria, VA

I used to go with friends to slop their hogs/pigs whatever they were.
WE should be careful not to infect THEM?
Joking, right?

[KIVPossum]

No, not joking. The hogs you slopped with your friends were probably in a mid-sized pen with access to the outside. Much healthier than confined production animals.

[freeda7]

Before u get vaccinated see this 1 of 6 parts.. simply compelling!

!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0JqQyl09zQ&feature=player_embedded

[pokemon]

Oh did anyone see where that house cat in TX died of swine flu?

[pokemon]

This is why I raise my own meat. Our pigs are organic and we free range. Heres the breed if your even in the least interested:)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamworth_%28pig%29

[bluevalentine]

Thanks David.

[Gatogorra]

I think the following link best expresses Sanofi Aventis's stance towards the possibility of swine flu jumping back to birds and creating a new, more lethal bird flu that can pass from human to human:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJS9PLgfBmg&feature=related

[commenter314159]

well now that there is a new vector, there is even more reason to get vaccinated.

[isjois]

"Agriculture and health officials have adopted a low-key posture toward the outbreak, noting that herd surveillance is working, and that the pigs in question cleared the virus and recovered on their own."

Wait a minute..."they cleared the virus...on their own"?

No vaccine?!? No anti-virals?

If H1N1 isn't life threatening to pigs, why aren't we studying them to see why they don't need a vaccine...but, we supposedly do?

[bluevalentine]

Exactly!

[CamJam]

Precisely!
I recently tweeted back to our Local news (KOIN 6) for making such a scare to folks to get the H1N1.. How their one story was talking about a FERET getting the Swine flu -- And in the story, it states the Feret is recovering well now etc.
(find it on page 5 as of today)
http://www.koinlocal6.com/content/news/topstories/story/Swine-Flu-Central/Nt_5K7msDUSkmTN0bXC1ag.cspx?p=5

I tweeted back to KOIN "So did the Feret get the vaccine?"
They replied "No. Maybe that's why he got sick."
I tweeted back "Well he recovered on his own AND WITHOUT the vaccine therefore, IMMUNE for life"

[KristinNoelle]

Swine flu isn't really life-threatening to humans either. Some groups are at higher risk, but the chance of dying from swine flu is pretty small.

[aaron2kristie]

This was no doubt a man made virus. Genetically modified foods genetically modified virus and then they encourage vaccination.

[JohnFromCensornati]

Factory farms will kill us one way or another and they'll abuse animals along the way.

[MollyRiver]

I completely agree. Factory farms are a bane to the earth and to every other living thing sharing this planet.