Are Factory Farms Breeding Swine Flu?

RODALE NEWS, Emmaus, Pa., April 29, 2009—The swine flu is spreading in the United States, with one death in Texas and hundreds of students in New York City likely sickened from the new virus. In California, the Los Angeles Times reports that a coroner is looking into the deaths of two men, ages 33 and 45, who may have succumbed to the flu strain. On Tuesday, several people across the country were hospitalized for possible swine flu, though most cases so far have been mild.

So where did this all start? It's too early in the outbreak to be sure, but one possibility is that the filthy conditions, tight confinement, and huge number of animals housed inside buildings in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) present a perfect breeding ground for this type of viral manifestation. "It's the likely scenario," says Bob Martin, senior officer at the Pew Environment Group and executive director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, which released a 2-year independent study in 2008. Long before this outbreak, his group's research pointed to serious concerns about commercial swine operations because of the role pigs play as conduits for swine and avian flu.

The details

According to reporting by the Associated Press and other news outlets, the epicenter of the swine flu outbreak may be La Gloria, Mexico, where a 4-year-old boy fell ill with respiratory problems and tested positive for swine flu. (He recovered.) More than 400 hundred cases since have been reported in La Gloria, though the World Health Organization has confirmed only 26 cases, including seven deaths. Residents of the small town blame hog CAFOs partially owned by Smithfield, Inc., an American company based in Virginia. Smithfield and the Mexican government deny the charges. However the story turns out, it's a reminder of the unintended and unhealthy consequences of CAFO-style food production, says Ellen Silbergeld, Ph.D., professor of environmental health engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and editor-in-chief of the journal Environmental Research.

"We need to start paying serious attention to the way in which we raise food animals, and the potential risks associated," she says. Says Silbergeld, "By raising animals within these highly confined spaces, we are driving the evolution of pathogens," she explains. "Every time a pathogen swaps a host and moves from one organism—a pig, a chicken, or us—to another, it's an opportunity for that pathogen to mutate, acquire new genes, and change itself." Not only do germs proliferate among the animals, they also can infect CAFO workers and be carried by flies attracted to the factories immense quantities of pig manure. Eventually, as may have happened in this current swine flu outbreak, the shuffling of genes can produce a particularly nasty virus.

What it means

Whether it turns out that this swine flu outbreak originated in a CAFO or not, confined animal feeding has been linked to the rise of antibiotic-resistant germs like MRSA, as well as to environmental problems (think for a second about all the waste that a million pigs can produce in a day, then ponder where it all goes). To lessen the chances that an even worse strain of swine flu, or some other virus, could escape one day from a CAFO, take these steps:

• Ring a representative. The federal government needs to start supporting smaller-scale farming before it's too late. We don't raise any more hogs than we did 65 years ago, but there are a much fewer farms that are a lot larger, says Martin of the Pew Environment Group. More diversified farming systems are what we need to turn to for animal and crop production. The current industrial animal and monoculture crop model are designed for catastrophic failure at some point.
• Defend yourself from swine flu. Health authorities don't know yet how dangerous the swine flu strain may be; even if it continues to spread, it may not cause many more cases of serious illness or death. While the situation unfolds, protect yourself with the tactics that work against any kind of flu: Wash your hands often; cover your mouth and nose with a tissue if you sneeze or cough, then throw it away; and yes, wash your hands again. See more anti-flu tips in How to Keep Swine Flu Out of Your House. 
• Meet your meat maker. When possible, buy pork and other meat from small, local producers whose animals don't spend their whole lives shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of their relatives. Shop at farmer's markets and check with sellers how they raise their livestock.

Wake-Up Call is an invitation to take action on urgent issues that threaten environmental and personal health. If you'd like to sound a Wake-Up Call, write to newseditor@rodale.com.

More Resources:

• Pew Commission Report: Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Production in America
• CDC: Swine Flu
• Pandemic Flu Plan

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• Swine Flu Questions & Answers From Harvard Medical School
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