While everyone else is at it....swine flu (european, animals, farms)

[cr1039]

Think factory farming has anything to do with it? Supposedly pigs are getting sick and transferring to other pigs because of their close quarters.

Swine-flu outbreak linked to Smithfield factory farms | Grist

[Xpat]

Nice link - thanks!

[cr1039]

Here is another, granted it is from hsus, but very interesting. We will see what happens...I have said for the past few years that I think factory farming will be illegal in the US in my lifetime - not that everyone will be vegetarian - but that we will take a note from the European Union and begin to regulate and then phase out factory farms.

Fast Track to Disaster: Swine Flu and Factory Farms (http://www.hsus.org/farm/news/ournews/swine_flu.html - broken link)

[Lilybeans]

No. I doubt it has anything to do with farming. I also don't think it's bio-terrorism.

[Damage Control Freak]

Originally Posted by Lilybeans

No. I doubt it has anything to do with farming.

Why would you doubt that? It's pretty self-explaining how in a given groups of animals a sickness is transfered from one to another. This isn't even any different from how a flu spreads among humans. However, the key factor there is the group size rather than the size of the quarters.
It is also widely accepted that factory farming can facilitate all kinds of mutations of germs and even the creation of new diseases, i.e. by enabling or at least alleviating the interspecies transfer of pathogens. Again, this is not very different from the civilatory diseases found among humans.

[Apples&Oranges]

I understand that this H1N1 flu has NOTHING to do with pigs. This virus was created in a laboratory! Google it and prepare to be shocked.