by Michel Chossudovsky
May 4, 2009
from
GlobalResearch Website
The WHO (World Health
Organization) announced on May 1st that it will be
dropping the designation of "swine flu".
The flu will henceforth be designated
A-H1N1, to be known more broadly as "the Mexican Flu",
intimating that the disease originated in Mexico through human to
human transmission.
Swine influenza refers to "strains of
influenza virus, that usually infect pigs". The terminology,
therefore, is important, because if the pandemic is labeled "Mexican
flu", the presumption is that Mexicans, namely humans, are
the source of the disease.
The term "Swine Flu', on the contrary, suggests that the pigs, at
least initially, transmit the virus to humans, and, therefore, the
issue of animal health must also be addressed.
The news reports have largely focused on the transmission from
humans to humans.
They have failed to address the abysmal
environmental and health conditions affecting the hog population in
factory farms, which are central to an understanding of two
fundamental processes:
-
the proliferation of the disease
within the hog factory farms.
-
the process of transmission of
the virus from pigs to humans.
The swine flu can be transmitted from
pigs to humans under very specific circumstances, invariably to
people working in hog farms who are exposed on a daily basis to the
pigs.
Scientists are unequivocal:
"People who work with pigs,
especially people with intense exposures, are at risk of
catching swine flu."
Swine influenza is an acute, highly
contagious, respiratory disease that results from infection with
type A influenza virus.
Field isolates of variable virulence
exist, and clinical manifestation may be determined by secondary
organisms. Pigs are the principal hosts of classic swine influenza
virus.
Human infections have been reported,
but porcine strains of influenza A do not appear to
easily spread in the human population... The disease in swine
occurs commonly in the Midwestern USA - and occasionally in
other states - Mexico, Canada, South America, Europe - including
the UK, Sweden, and Italy - Kenya, China, Japan, Taiwan, and
other parts of eastern Asia.
(The
Merck Veterinarian Manual)
Canadian Pigs
Infected by Mexicans
The media has the distinct ability of turning realities upside down.
Canada's print media, radio and network TV, in chorus, point to a
Mexican worker on a hog farm in Alberta, identified as being
responsible for having infected 220 pigs out of a herd of 2200 in an
unnamed central Alberta hog factory farm.
"The bans came quickly after
authorities revealed Saturday that a central Alberta pig farm is
quarantined under suspicion that a farm worker returning from
Mexico spread the “swine flu” to hogs."
(Calgary Herald, May 4, 2009,
emphasis added)
Some ten percent of the herd is said to
be "recovering", according to federal officials.
A quarantine has been placed on the
farm.
"Public-health officials said
yesterday they were watching closely for movement of the
swine-flu virus between people and pigs after a Canadian herd
became infected, but took pains to counter a growing fear around
the world of pork products.
As a quarantine was imposed on an unnamed Alberta hog farm where
220 of the herd contracted the novel flu"
(National Post, May 4, 2009,
emphasis added)
"Pig flu" is not a "novel" phenomenon as
suggested by the media, neither is the H1N1 strain. Known and
documented pigs are the original source of transmission: from pigs
to humans and from humans to humans.
The official story, however, is that the Canadian pigs in the
province of Alberta had been infected with swine flu by a Mexican
farm worker, namely human to pig transmission. Conversely, these
same officials deny the transmission from pigs to humans.
The official reports are unequivocal:
Canadian pigs could not have
infected people working in the hog factory including the Mexican
farm worker:
"It was the first time the Canadian
Food Inspection Agency had reported a case of the virus being
transmitted from a human to a pig in Canada, although this has
been known to happen elsewhere.
The agency said the infected herd was quarantined pending more
testing "but that the chances the pigs could transfer the virus
to humans was remote."
(Reuters, May 2, 2009)
Dr. Brian Evans, a veterinarian
with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA),
stated that,
"it's common to see influenza in
pigs and human transmission to pigs is known to occur."
Dead Pigs from
Hog Factory Farms
In Mexico, which was identified by the
WHO as the original source of the virus, a high incidence of swine
flu was recorded in La Gloria, Perote Municipality, Veracruz State.
"Sources characterized the event as
a ‘strange’ outbreak of acute respiratory infection, which led
to bronchial pneumonia in some pediatric cases. According to a
local resident, symptoms included fever, severe cough, and large
amounts of phlegm.
Health officials recorded 400 cases
that sought medical treatment in the last week in La Gloria,
which has a population of 3,000; officials indicated that 60% of
the town’s population (approximately 1,800 cases) has been
affected. No precise timeframe was provided, but sources
reported that a local official had been seeking health
assistance for the town since February."
(quoted in F. William Engdahl,
Flying Pigs, Tamiflu and Factory Farms,
Global Research, April 2009)
There are indications that the hog
factory farms in Mexico contributed to the initial outbreak of swine
flu. La Gloria is a company town, which houses pig farms and
surrounding toxic hog manures.
-
Granjas Carroll de Mexico (GCM)
is among the world's largest hog factories, producing almost
one million factory hogs per annum.
(Ibid)
-
GCM is a joint venture operation
owned 50% by the world’s largest pig producing industrial
company, Smithfield Foods of Virginia.
(Ibid)
Smithfield Foods (SFD) is the world's
largest hog producer and slaughterhouse. With over 14 million hogs
per annum, the Mexican plant of La Gloria represents over 7 % of its
Worldwide production.
Who is
Infecting Whom?
The Alberta incident where a Mexican farm worker allegedly infected
220 pigs, out of a herd of 2200 (exactly ten percent, which suggests
an approximation rather than a precise estimate), is crucial to the
understanding of the transmission process.
The historical evidence suggests that transmission has, despite
precautions, occurred from pigs to humans in giant hog factories.
There is reason to believe that hog factories in North America could
potentially be the source of transmission. In the US since 2005, 12
reported cases of swine flu among humans were recorded, all of which
were related to direct contact or proximity to pigs, according the
the Centre for Disease Control (CDC). These figures do not included
unreported cases.
What is the underlying causality.
The fundamental question with regard to
Alberta and other hog producing regions in North America is:
-
Who is infecting whom?
-
Did a farm worker returning from
Mexico infect the pigs?
-
Or did the Canadian pigs,
confined to an unsanitary, polluted and confined
environment, transmit the disease, initially within the 2200
herd, which then led to the infection of humans, namely
people working in the hog factory in proximity of the pigs?
If this is the case, the origins and
causes of the pandemic are dramatically different to those presented
by the WHO and the
Obama Administration. We would no
longer be dealing with the "Mexican Flu", transmitted from Mexico,
but with a disease which originates in North America's hog factory
farms.
One would at least expect in an investigation that all the facts and
causalities underlying the transmission of the virus be carefully
examined.
The name of the farm in central Alberta
has not been released. No press interview or reports have been
conducted at the farm on location. The identity of the Mexican
worker who allegedly infected the pigs has not been made public.
An aura of secrecy prevails:
From the available information, the
official story that the pigs were infected by a farm worker, who
contracted the swine flu in Mexico cannot be corroborated.
In recent developments, six more
infections were reported in Alberta (Total 24, May 4, 2009).
A young Alberta girl has been
hospitalized "with a serious case of human swine flu":
"Alberta Health announced Monday an
Edmonton girl is in stable condition in hospital after
contracting the disease, although it is not clear where she
picked it up since she wasn't traveling."
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