Whoa. I didn’t know that the mission of agriculture was to kill people by infecting them with virulent diseases. Sarcasm aside, Davis’s article, which contained a few valid points, accused animal agriculture of being a hotbed of disease and devastation. The article however, has very little basis in fact. “Probably conceived in the fecal mire of an industrial pigsty (Davis, 2009)”?? H1N1, deemed “Swine Flu” by the media, dealt a crippling blow to the already struggling pork industry. As Davis points out, H1N1 is a hybrid virus, containing genes of swine, bird and human flus. Swine Flu is an actual virus, and is feared greatly by hog growers. While the actual disease is only fatal in about ten percent of affected hogs, it can often manifest into more serious infections. Nearly all producers take steps to prevent Swine Flu and the complications that arise from it.
Contrary to popular belief, humans cannot get H1N1 from exposure to hogs or from eating pork products, however they can transmit the disease to swine. Last summer and fall, visitors at fairs and livestock shows were asked to keep out of areas where show pigs were being housed in order to protect the animals.
I’ll grant that this article was written early on in the H1N1 scare, however its news stories like this that give animal agriculture a bad name that it most certainly does not deserve.
Discussion questions:
Each year, a different strain of the common flu kills millions of people. H1N1 has not lived up to the hype it was originally given, and is not nearly as threatening. What is your opinion of the handling of the H1N1 situation by the media, government and general public?
We all saw the images of people wearing dust masks in hopes of protecting themselves from H1N1. What caused the mass panic and what does that say about our propensity to believe everything we are told?
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