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MEXICO: Swine Flu Fears Take Toll on Pork
Industry
By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY (IPS) - Esther de Anda has
stopped eating pork since the appearance of
swine flu in Mexico. "They say there’s no
problem in eating it, but for now I prefer
fish or chicken," the homemaker told IPS.
Her response was typical of many consumers
in Mexico, where the pork industry has come
under scrutiny since the outbreak of the flu
epidemic on Apr. 24, which so far has
officially infected 97 people and killed
seven in Mexico, although some 1,300
patients are under observation.
Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture Alberto
Cárdenas gave assurances that consumers can
safely eat pork, which does not transmit the
virus.
Nevertheless, China, Ukraine, Russia and
other countries have banned imports of pork
from Mexico and parts of the United States –
where 109 cases of swine flu, most of them
mild, have been confirmed.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) raised
its pandemic alert level to phase 5, the
second-highest level, on Wednesday.
The total worldwide cases of swine flu had
climbed to 257 in 11 countries by Thursday,
according to WHO.
Veratect Corporation, a two-year-old U.S.
company that monitors disease outbreaks
worldwide, claims it identified the first
case of the new virus on Mar. 30 in the
municipality of Perote, in the southeastern
Mexican state of Veracruz, 800 km from the
Mexican capital.
The Seattle, Washington-based company says
it reported the cases to the World Health
Organisation (WHO), the U.S. Centres for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDCs) and
the International Federation of the Red
Cross (IFRC) in early April.
A pig factory farm run by Granjas Carroll, a
subsidiary of the U.S.-based Smithfield
Foods – the world’s largest pork producer
and processor – operates near the Perote
village of La Gloria.
Mexico’s health ministry confirmed Wednesday
that the first case in Mexico of swine flu –
which is a new mix of pig, bird, and human
viruses – occurred in Perote, although the
first person to die of the disease in this
country was an employee of a national tax
office on Apr. 12 in the southern state of
Oaxaca.
Researchers and activists point to intensive
pig farming as a perfect breeding-ground for
new viruses.
Silvia Ribeiro, a researcher with the
Canada-based Action Group on Erosion,
Technology and Concentration (ETC Group),
says the roots of the current epidemic lie
in the pig farming industry dominated by
transnational corporations.
The industry rejects such allegations.
Alejandro Ramírez, assistant director of the
Confederation of Mexican Hog Farmers, denied
that pigs were the cause of the epidemic.
He also said that although pork does not
transmit the virus, consumption of pork in
Mexico has fallen 80 percent. Annual per
capita consumption of pork in this country
is approximately 13 kgs.
"This is a critical situation, and we are
seeking solutions," he told IPS. "We need to
decide what to do with the meat that is not
being sold."
After a Jun. 30, 2007 inspection of Granjas
Carroll, the federal environmental
protection agency, PROFEPA, reported that
the company – the largest pork producer in
the country – had committed irregularities
in waste disposal that posed a threat to the
soil, air, water and underground water
sources.
PROFEPA set a Jun. 30, 2009 deadline for the
factory farm to bring its operations up to
the country’s environmental standards, in
order to obtain the environment ministry’s
"clean industry certificate."
Some 6,000 pork producers with 14 million
hogs produce more than one million tons a
month of pork in Mexico.
Hog farmers in Mexico and the United States
pressed for the name of the disease to be
changed.
On Thursday, WHO spokesman Dick Thompson
said the agency would stop using the term
"swine flu," in order to prevent confusion
over the danger posed by pigs. Instead, he
said, it would "stick with the technical
scientific name H1N1 influenza A."
In a preliminary analysis of the new virus,
researchers found that it arose from North
American swine flu strains first identified
in 1998 at a hog factory farm in the U.S.
state of North Carolina, where a similar new
human-pig hybrid virus had killed hundreds
of animals.
In a report based on a 2.5 year
investigation, which was released in April
2008, the U.S.-based Pew Commission on
Industrial Farm Animal Production concluded
that industrialised animal agriculture posed
"unacceptable" public health risks, as well
as threats to the environment.
"Due to the large numbers of animals housed
in close quarters in typical (industrial
farm animal production) facilities, there
are many opportunities for animals to be
infected by several strains of pathogens,
leading to increased chance for a strain to
emerge that can infect and spread in
humans," warns the report "Putting Meat on
The Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production
in America".
The independent commission, whose 15 members
came from the fields of veterinary medicine,
agriculture, public health, business,
government, rural advocacy and animal
welfare, was set up in 2005 to study the
impacts of the drastic changes in animal
agriculture in the United States over the
past 40 years.
The report emphasised the danger that "the
continual cycling of viruses…in large herds
or flocks (will) increase opportunities for
the generation of novel virus through
mutation or recombinant events that could
result in more efficient human-to-human
transmission."
In 1965, there were 53 million hogs on more
than one million farms in the United States,
compared to 65 million animals in just
65,000 facilities today, half of which have
more than 5,000 hogs.
A United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) mission headed by Animal
Health Officer Moisés Vargas is currently in
Mexico to study the role that pigs have
played in the current epidemic.
"There is nothing to check, because the
(pig) farms operate according to health
standards and measures," said the
Confederation of Mexican Hog Farmers’
Ramírez. "The best solution is to start
consuming pork again."
The Egyptian government decided Wednesday to
have the 300,000 pigs in the country
slaughtered to prevent the spread of swine
flu.
But the Paris-based World Organisation for
Animal Health (OIE) released a statement
Thursday advising " members that the culling
of pigs will not help to guard against
public or animal health risks presented by
this novel A/H1N1 influenza virus and such
action is inappropriate."
Acting WHO assistant director-general Keiji
Fukuda said Thursday that "Good disease
surveillance is now required in countries in
the southern hemisphere, which is coming
into its winter season when seasonal
influenza tends to peak.
"It is possible that we will see outbreaks
of the H1N1 virus occurring more frequently
in the southern hemisphere than in the
northern hemisphere. This is something we
have to be on the watch out very carefully
for," he said.
Besides Mexico and the United States, cases
of swine flu have been confirmed in Austria
(1), Britain (8), Canada (19), Germany (3),
Israel (2), the Netherlands (1), New Zealand
(3), Spain (13) and Switzerland (1).
WHO continues to advise no restriction of
regular travel or closure of borders.
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