@tracingpaper follows the emergence of the novel H1N1 flu virus; the impact on pigs, farming and pork; and the debate over its possible links with industrial pig production. This list will continue to be updated, with latest entries at the top.
June 2009
- BBC investigates links between intensive pig farms and swine-origin H1N1 flu: read/listen (more on this from The Tracing Paper)
May 2009
- Pork: the Source Matters – Michael Pollan on swine-origin flu from @KitchenKop
- Time article on Texan’s legal action against Smithfield, big pork producer, for wrongful flu death (via @doreenstabinsky)
- Smithfield states no virus, including H1N1 flu, present in its Mexico pig herd. No surprise?
- Wrongful-death lawsuit filed against Smithfield Foods for pregnant wife’s death from H1N1 flu reports local press (via @ethicurean)
- Medical journal confirms “triple-reassortant influenza viruses emerged among pig herds in N America in late ’90s”
- Pandemic potential: are CAFOs responsible? Rounding up scientific views on role of pigs, intensive farming, biosecurity..
- International organisations (WHO, FAO, OIE) reassert safety of cooked pork while noting viruses may be present in raw meat
- Where are the CAFOs? Superb map of US factory farms by state & county – from Duplin NC (324 pig CAFOs) to Alaska (0) (from Food & Water Watch). Note map methodology uses EPA definitions of CAFO – by head, “discharge method” criteria etc.
Is a factory farm the same as a CAFO? The OED says “Factory farm: a farm using intensive methods of farming”, so yes. (Concept is nothing to do with ownership, family or other.)
- Afghanistan’s only pig quarantined – “we built it a room because of swine influenza” (more from Pig Progress)
- A brief history of swine influenza from 1918 to 2009
- Doing the maths? FAO says “30% all US pigs exposed to H1N1″; Smithfield (produces 25%+ US pigs) says “no incidence of H1N1 in any herds”
- Background reading on big pork: The Ecologist investigates Smithfield Foods’ production methods, control of US market (2003)
- Prevalence & cost of swine influenza in pig herds: FAO says 30% all pigs exposed to H1N1 strains; SI costs UK farms £7/pig
- Invaluable reading (but nowt on viruses): CAFOs Uncovered, Untold Costs of Confined Animal Feeding Operations, a 2008 report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (via @tlaskawy of Beyond Green)
- Dr Ruth Watkins, farmer and virologist, rejects “miasma theories” – “however nasty the smells of shit lagoons they’re not spreading a respiratory virus” – but asserts “big commercial units with hundreds and thousands of pigs are essential to provide the immune driven mutation, and the mixing, the reassortment opportunities offered by dual or multiple infections and the onward transmission opportunity for newly reassorted viruses” in email to Warmwell. (The Mail confuses the issues – ‘The smell is so awful that I start to vomit’: Is this farm the Ground Zero of swine flu?)
- Infection of Canadian pigs with H1N1 influenza A from farm worker “more a curiosity than a game changer” reports ScienceInsider
- Pandemic hype? 2008 MIT research suggested “pandemics no deadlier than seasonal flu”, commercial interests may play up risk
- ScienceInsider’s interview with Virologist Ruben Donis, CDC chief of molecular virology & vaccines, on genetic origins of flu virus
- Felicity Lawrence in the Guardian: “intensive farming at heart of swine flu pandemic” as CDC confirms genetic link with strain found on US farms: “At CDC the head of virology had completed the genetic fingerprinting of the swine flu and was able to say that it has arisen from a strain first identified on industrial pig units in North Carolina in the late 1990s.”
- Smithfield writes to staff again with latest “news” (their quotes): tests will “conclude .. A(H1N1) strain not present in our hogs” but “results – positive or negative – will not have any effect on the food chain”. But what about on food production?
- Stalling for time? Smithfield now says samples submitted 30 (not 29) Apr; results expected in “approx 12 days” (not “by week’s end”)
- Did this all begin in a CAFO in 1998? When & where did triple-reassortant pig-bird-human flu 1st emerge? More from Debora MacKenzie in New Scientist and Caroline Lucas in The Guardian
- Compelling argument for the CAFO-swine flu link (still no proof, of course) from Johann Hari on Huffpo (via @ bittman @ tea_austen @ MeatMaven)
April 2009
- Flu heritage: New Scientist details the evolution of H1N1 from 1918 to 1998 emergence of triple reassortant swine-avian-human flu on US farms
- New Scientist’s Short Sharp Science blog on why H1N1 flu A really should be called “swine flu” … hang on, make that “2009 flu”
- World Health Organisation stops calling H1N1 influenza A “swine flu” to avoid confusion and protect pigs – more from AP
- New Columbia University analysis suggests novel flu made of “all swine” components – more from Beyond Green on ProMED posting (via @tlaskawy)
- Smithfield submits “new samples from swine herds for genetic sequence analysis .. initial results expected by week’s end”
- Smithfield president C Larry Pope writes to staff (& all) about flu & “unrestrained internet media, rumor & speculation”
- Flu & pork: EC director general for health & consumer protection confirms virus ‘nothing to do with the food chain’ reports Farmers’ Guardian again
- Flu & pigs: World Organisation for Animal Health – ‘not justified’ to call swine flu as not currently animal health issue reports Farmers’ Guardian
- Pork producers assert no proven link between flu & pigs: National Pork Board’s “facts about origin of flu outbreak” – from PRNewswire …
- Egypt to slaughter country’s entire herd of 300,000 pigs as precaution against novel H1N1 flu reports Independent
- Sourcing flu: Fair Food Fight’s El Dragon on patient zero & possibility of any link with industrial pig farm
- Grist‘s @tomphilpott reviews emerging evidence on industrial pig farm’s possible link to novel H1N1 flu (via @foodpolitics)
- Flu outbreak doesn’t bode well for future of free-range pork – more from Fanatic Cook [arguments against the link with CAFOs?] (via @fanaticcook)
- Sourcing flu: scientific investigation must follow circumstantial evidence of link to industrial pig production
- Swine flu, bird flu or human flu? The Tracing Paper considers the nature and name of the novel H1N1 flu virus
- Blaming the pigs? Fair Food Fight questions Grist‘s suggested swine flu link to Smithfield Foods. Epidemiologist needed!
- Don’t blame the pigs: ProMED says misleading to call Mexico outbreak swine flu, better described as novel (human) H1N1 flu
- Smithfield says “recent available information” shows no evidence of swine flu in Mexico herds/workers (via @foodpolitics) …
- Bloggers question links between swine flu & Smithfield Foods – more from Local Foods Research (via @foodpolitics @civileater @tomphilpott Huffington Post on possible link with industrial production) but…
