Alex,
When I heard that report on NPR the other night, I initially thought
the same thing. Then the reporter talked about how most of these pigs
live in big cities like Cairo, where the people have their pigs living
right outside their apartments, in their outer courtyard. This close
proximity of pig to human is similar to the way that pigs and fowl are
raised in China and much of Asia. This promotes the transfer of
influenza virus across species--which is one of the main reasons why
many flu epidemics start in these regions. So it is not such a knee-
jerk reaction after all.
For more information, the Center for Disease Control has a nice PDF
brochure you can download for free at:
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/pdf/brochure.pdf
The pig farmers have the legitimate complaint that this will cause
them to lose their livelihood, and also exacerbate the disposal of
food waste scraps in Cairo (garbage disposal in this city is already
problematic).
BTW, it is more properly referred to as "type A influenza," and it can
be caught by hogs.
Diana
On May 1, 2009, at 5:15 PM, Alex Sproul wrote:
In response to Fritz saying:
>At this particular time I am not sure that anyone would want to be
handling hogs.
WaV said:
>H1N1 is absolutely NOT from eating pork. It should probably not
even be
>called Swine Flu.
The Egyptian government of Hosni Mubarek is on Fritz's side.
They've ordered the slaughter of every pig in the country, said to
number well over 300,000. Muslims, of course, do not eat pork, but
the 10% of Egyptians who are non-Muslim sure do.
What an inane, knee-jerk reaction (or some would say 'excuse'...)
Flu is flu, and every year it mutates into a new version. It's
still fun, though, to talk about a "snoutbreak," or an
"aporkalypse". :)
Alex
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University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Department of Biochemistry
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