"Lagoons" filled with pig excrement, decomposed body parts and other waste in Veracruz, Mexico
Government officials in Mexico suspect Smithfield Ham industrial hog processing facility as the petri dish that grew the latest swine flu
Dead pigs at Granjas Carroll laid out to be eaten by birds.
"Some people started getting ill in February and an eight-month-old baby died. After that another baby died on March 21st. Suddenly most of the village got ill. It was weekend and the tiny clinic here was closed. The state health authorities then did send doctors and nurses to look after us, and give us medication. About 60% of the village were ill and we asked them what it was and they said it was a severe and atypical cold. We talked about influenza and they said that was impossible, that influenza had been eradicated from Mexico." Resident of La Gloria, Veracruz, Mexico, speaking on condition of anonymity.
(Reported in the UK Guardian, Monday, April 27)
In early April, a Washington State based company called
Veratect, which monitors disease outbreaks around the world, reported an unusually high number of people becoming ill with flu like symptoms in the town of La Gloria. At least one sample taken from a resident has tested positve for swine flu. Two children in La Gloria have died so far.
The Mexican government has reported findings linking the Granjas Carroll plant, which is located twelve miles away from La Gloria and is owned by Smithfield Ham, to the virus. According to the Mexico City based newspaper La Jornada, the virus could have been spread by the "clouds of flies that come out of the hog barns, and the waste lagoons into which the Mexican-US company spews tons of excrement," although according to the Guardian, it is so far only known to be spread by direct contact with animals and humans infected with the disease and not by flies.
Smithfield was fined over ten years ago for having repeatedly violated EPA pollution regulations by dumping pig feces and other wastes into the Pagan River in Virginia, which feeds into the Chesapeake Bay.
Smithfield issued a press release today stating that there have been no cases among either its livestock or its employees of "North American Influenza," citing a WHO study calling it "inaccurate" to call the virus "swine flu," since it is a combination of pig, avian and human viruses.
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