Nature fed up with animals being ill-confined, force-fed? 1st cows mad, then bird flu, now deadly virus from swine

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While Indonesia's bird flu death toll climbs to 119, deadly strain (a nasty mash-up of swine, avian, & human viruses) of swine flu gets under radar of the immune system and pushes death toll in Mexico to 152 and climbing. "Residents [of La Gloria, Perote Municipality, Veracruz State, Mexico] believed the outbreak had been caused by contamination from pig breeding farms located in the area. They believed that the farms, operated by Granjas Carroll, polluted the atmosphere and local water bodies, which in turn led to the disease outbreak. According to residents, the company denied responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to ‘flu.’ However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms. It was unclear whether health officials had identified a suspected pathogen responsible for this outbreak."

One of the first things they will want to look at are the hundreds of industrial-scale hog facilities that have sprung up around Mexico in recent years, and the thousands of people employed inside the crowded, pathogen-filled confinement buildings and processing plants.

Industry calls these massive compounds "confined animal feeding operations," or CAFOs (KAY-fohs), though most people know them simply as "factory farms." You have seen them before while flying: Long white buildings lined up in tightly packed rows of three, four or more. Within each confinement, thousands of pigs are restricted to indoor pens and grain-fed for market, while breeding sows are kept in small metal crates where they spend most of their lives pregnant or nursing piglets.

In the last several years, U.S. hog conglomerates have opened giant swine CAFOs south of the border, including dozens around Mexico City in the neighboring states of Mexico and Puebla. Smithfield Foods also reportedly operates a huge swine facility in the State of Veracruz. Many of these CAFOs raise tens of thousands of pigs at a time. Cheaper labor costs and a desire to enter the Latin American market are drawing more industrialized agriculture to Mexico all the time, wiping out smaller, traditional farms, which now account for only a small portion of swine production in Mexico.

Four Indo- nesians died from bird flu in Feb- ruary, bring- ing the coun- try's total death toll from the disease to 119, officials at the national bird flu commission said on Tuesday.

Top left: A Mariachi wears a mask as he plays the violin at Plaza Garibaldi in Mexico City April 25, 2009; Top right: Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera officiates a closed-door mass at the Metropolitan cathedral in Mexico City April 26, 2009. Churches stood empty Sunday in Mexico City after services were canceled, and health workers screened airports and bus stations for people sickened by a new strain of swine flu that experts fear could become a global epidemic.

The Aztec Stadium, one of the world's largest soccer stadiums, sits empty as America plays Tecos in a Mexican league game. Thousands of fans had to forgo their beloved weekly tradition Sunday, forced by the flu outbreak to cheer from their living rooms instead of the sun-soaked seats.

Riot police stand in front of Mexico's National Autonomous University soccer stadium, which was closed to the public, shortly before a game between Chivas and the Pumas. Despite being a sell-out, the famous volcanic-rock bleachers were empty due to the crisis. This will mean reimbursing more than $500,000 to ticket holders and losing more money in concessions, especially beer sales

People wearing protective masks pay respects to Our Lady of Guadalupe as they passed Guadalupe's shrine at the Basilica de Guadalupe. Mexico's biggest Catholic church was shut down and masses canceled as a precaution to keep large crowds away. Many public buildings, including schools, have also been closed.

Members of the Mexican army distribute face masks as prevention against the swine flu virus April 24, 2009. An outbreak of deadly swine flu in Mexico and the United States has raised the specter of a new virus against which much of humanity would have little or no immunity. About 1,600 suspected cases and 149 suspect deaths have been reported in Mexico, according to health officials. The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said that the infection of humans with an influenza A virus of animal origins is a concern "because of the risk, albeit small, that this could represent the appearance of viruses with pandemic potential."

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Photos courtesy of Eliana Aponte / Reuters, Alfredo Estrella / AFP / Getty, Marco Ugarte / AP, Julio Cortez / AP / Houston Chronicle, Gregory Bull / AP, manishin.com, Animal Disease Control Center of Chunghua County / Handout / AP Photo, Jorge Dan / Reuters, Dario Lopez-Mills / AP Photo, Marco Ugarte / AP, Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images

Original Source: Huffington Post, Time, ABC News, Peak Oil Entrepreneur, Kansas City Star, and Grist

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