TONY ROYCE Newnham

EVERYBODY is talking about swine flu but nobody seems to be asking what caused it or precisely where it actually came from.
Just recently a filthy factory pig farm was exposed where the animals were suffering almost unbelievable cruelty, confined in tiny pens, no clean water to drink, unable to stand, lying in their own faeces, with abcesses and open wounds crawling with maggots.

I suggest to you that it was a perfect breeding ground for new strains of dangerous bacteria and viruses.

I am deeply concerned about what other products on the shelves of the Woolworths supermarkets have been sourced from similar breeding grounds for a potential human disease pandemic.

The mindset of any person that has allowed appalling factory farm animal cruelty to develop has to be questioned. Indeed there should be extreme concern as to whether that person is even capable of understanding what are acceptable civilised values.

But factory farm depravities will continue until there is overwhelming public condemnation and responsible government departments take the initiative, introduce proper and effective legislation, and force the courts to act decisively and effectively to prevent similar occurencies.

In the meantime a thorough investigation and audit should be made of all Woolworths sources of food supply to ascertain that they all meet a required level of satisfactory hygiene and cleanliness, and do not engage in unnecessary animal suffering.

Furthermore, this investigation by Woolworths should be supervised by a responsible government representative so that there is no cover up and all of their findings should be made public.

The news media in general is long overdue in condemning intensive factory farming and the very serious risks that are being taken with the public’s health because of it. The situation has been highlighted recently by the exposure of an appalling situation (pigs cramped in tiny pens, no clean water to drink, unable to stand, lying in their own faeces, abcesses and open wounds crawling with maggots) at an intensive pig farm in the north of Tasmania.

What should be a very concerned Tasmanian Govt. Dept., the Department of Primary Industry and Water, appear to be dismissing the seriousness and gravity of the situation.

This has come on top of the recent exposure of appalling conditions at an intensive egg farming operation in the south of the State and from where a repeated number of Salmonella poisoning outbreaks were shown to have emanated. The pig farmer is yet to go to court to face many charges of animal cruelty against him but is currently still in business supplying Australia’s largest grocery retailer. The egg producer got back in business without even a “slap on the wrist.” The RSPCA refused to attend the piggery when called by a desperate animal activist and in the case of the egg producer, they turned up 2/3 days after the “farmer” was warned.

NB. The Chief Veterinary Officer at the DPIW sits on the Board of the RSPCA.

Please read the statement below, made by an eminent medical practioner, cited in my most recent letter to the Dept..

Sir,

I have received a less than satisfactory answer to my concerns and ask you again to give more serious consideration to the risks to public health that are being run by the factory farming industry and which have been recently highlighted by the appalling situation at the piggery in the north of Tasmania.

Michael Greger, M.D., is the director of public health and animal agriculture for The Humane Society of the United States and this is what he had to say:

Factory farms can be considered viral breeding grounds for many reasons:

The sheer number of confined animals: With so many animals—stressed, deprived and suffering from poor welfare—overcrowded in today’s factory farms, a pathogen can run rampant and mutate among so many confined “hosts.” As Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Professor Ellen Silbergeld put it: “Instead of a virus only having one spin of the roulette wheel, it has thousands and thousands of spins, for no extra cost. It drives the evolution of new diseases.”

The unnatural stocking density: Swine flu is transmitted like human flu, via infected nasal secretions and respiratory droplets. So, when pigs are intensively confined on factory farms, the large viral loads considered necessary for the emergence of rare flu mutants can rapidly transfer from animal to animal.

The stress crippling their immune systems: Breeding sows confined in gestation crates can’t even turn around and their health can suffer immensely. According to veterinary scientists, crowding more pigs per pen “allows more opportunities for direct nose-to-nose contact or for aerosol spread of the [swine flu] virus between penmates. Furthermore, a large number of pigs per pen creates physiological stress, which in turn can alter the immune system and predispose pigs to infection.
The lack of adequate fresh air: The dankness helps keep the virus alive.

The decaying fecal waste: The millions of gallons of excrement produced by a typical operation decompose and release ammonia, burning the pigs’ respiratory tracts, which may predispose them to respiratory infection in the first place.

The lack of adequate sunlight: In factory farms, there may be no sunlight. The UV rays in sunlight are quite effective in destroying the influenza virus. Thirty minutes in direct sunlight completely inactivates the flu virus, but it can last for days in the shade, and weeks in moist manure.

Pharmacological crutches: Just as the U.S. pork industry jeopardizes the public through the mass feeding of human antibiotics to pigs to offset the effects of intensive confinement, the industry vaccinates its herds for swine flu. This minimizes the virus’ impact on production, but may not significantly reduce viral shedding. Instead, it immunologically pressures the virus to mutate by acquiring novel human virus surface proteins, as has happened in Eurasia and north America, which may increase its pandemic potential.

Preponderance of disease-carrying rodents, flies, and other vectors: A 2006 study found evidence that flies may be able to pick up flu viruses from factory farms and carry them for miles.

Put all of these factors together and what you get is a “perfect storm” environment for the emergence and spread of new “superstrains” of influenza, which long-distance live animal transport can then rapidly spread across the country.

Tony Royce. Newnham Tasmania 7248