What caused Swine flu?

The World Health Organization (WHO) has been saying for years that ‘a new pandemic is inevitable’and experts from the European Commission and the FAO have cautioned that one reason for this could be that the rapid move from small holdings to industrial pig production is in fact increasing the risk of development and transmission of disease epidemics. The current outbreak started on a large pig factory farm run by the US Smithfield Corporation, the largest pig producer in the world. Conditions for factory farmed animals, whether pigs, chickens or anything else are rarely ideal and usually involve large amounts of drugs such as antibiotics and growth promoters.

Although the company denies any connection between their pigs and the flu the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn that scientists still do not know the extent that infectious compounds produced in factory farms affect human health. Smithfield has already been fined $12.6m and is currently under another federal investigation in the US for toxic environmental damage from pig excrement lakes. Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that is asking concerned consumers to sign a petition asking the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organisation to investigate and develop regulations for these farms to protect global health. If you would like to add your voice to that, then visit www.avaaz.org/en/swine_flu_pandemic