As talk about swine flu (H1N1) dominates our local media, it is easy to become consumed by death tolls and the latest updates on tamiflu vaccinations. It is rare to turn on CBC radio without hearing at least some news coverage of swine flu. With such seemingly extensive media analysis, it may be surprising to hear that there is a very important aspect of swine flu that the mainstream media has failed to acknowledge.
Back in April, the initial reaction of our local media to the spreading of swine flu was that there was going to be a pandemic – unless a vaccine was quickly discovered. Now that one has been discovered, we can all breathe a sigh of relief… right?
Maybe not — maybe it’s time to think about the disease that comes after swine flu, as well as the one that comes after that; because just like avian flu, mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth disease before it, there will surely be another one after it. It will remain a constant struggle to persist one step ahead of every disease that comes to plague us. What may help us in preventing future diseases, however, is if we shift our attention to the roots of the disease itself – that is, if we treat swine flu as a symptom of a much larger problem.
This process begins with tracing the geography of swine flu back to its roots, to offer a more global perspective. The first case of the recent outbreak of swine flu in humans may be linked back to a four-year-old boy from the Mexican community of La Gloria in Veracruz on April 2, 2009. Interestingly, this town exists within 50km of a poultry farm that had recently had an avian flu (H5N1) outbreak. In the town of La Gloria itself, there is a large pig farm that is owned by a subsidiary of the world’s largest pork producer – US company Smithfield Foods.
The close proximity of pig farms to factory poultry farms increases the risk of H5N1 being passed, as well as allowing for new virulent influenza strains to emerge. It is also important to note that common swine feed includes “poultry litter” – in other words, anything found on the floor of poultry farms, including fecal matter, feathers, etc. It is believed by La Gloria residents that as the pig farm in their town polluted local water supplies and the atmosphere, that this induced the transfer of the disease to humans.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, swine flu started genetically on U.S. hog farms in the 1990s. The exact origination of swine flu is still debated, but these are the two different theories on the origination of swine flu that both trace back to factory farms (CAFOs). It is most likely that swine flu emerged as a result of a variety of flu viruses being transferred by the movement of pigs between Eurasia and North America, resulting in the new pandemic strain found in humans.
This should hardly come as a surprise. Animals in CAFOs are held in close confinement, along with massive piles of waste, and antibiotics are needed to keep the crowded animals alive. The use of antibiotics allows for drug-resistant superbugs to form that endanger both humans and animals alike. Humans can then contract diseases by handling infected animals.
It seems obvious that disease will be bred and spread from CAFOs. Yet there is still a lack of disease surveillance on these farms. In the case of La Gloria, the WHO’s global disease surveillance system did not respond to the outcries of the poor rural town. These outcries began shortly after a strange respiratory illness hit 60% of La Gloria’s population when the Smithfield hog farm arrived. There have also been cases of swine flu in Romania, Indonesia and Mexico, where health authorities have not been allowed to enter farms without the permission of the company in ownership.
CAFOs tend to be located among the poorest communities in the world, where its citizens have little voice. Furthermore, when disease hits the farms, it is the citizens of poor communities that are hurt the most economically. In the meantime, pharmaceuticals are making a killing from medications and vaccines.
The swine flu pandemic has been entirely shaped by our mainstream media, and this has diverted our attention away from the origins of swine flu towards band-aid solutions, such as vaccines. Instead of the media focusing only on the local effects of swine flu and the vaccination for it, there needs to be a shift towards a more global perspective that will pinpoint in on the cause. There also needs to be a call for a more effective and responsive global disease surveillance system; but even deeper than that, there needs to be a call for a shift in our global food system, one that is less congested, more sanitary, and less prone to the breeding and spreading of new diseases.
Suggested further readings:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=ENG20090429&articleId=13408
http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=48
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/04/exclusive-cdc-h.html
Works cited:
Karesh, William B. and Robert A. Cook. (2005). “The Human-Animal Link”. Foreign Affairs. 84(4) p. 38-50.
R Stanton. All News is Local. Chapter 9&10: Citizens and Participation & Conclusion. 170-200. Copyright 2007 Richard Stanton.
Leave a comment