October, 26 2009, 04:39pm EDT
Pediatrician and Farm Sanctuary Executive Director Dr. Allan Kornberg Submits Statement on the Next Wave of Swine Flu Outbreaks
Dr. Kornberg: “…as swine flu returns to exact more damage and take more lives, we must decide as a society which is more important: protecting human lives or pork industry profits.”
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y.
Dr. Allan Kornberg, pediatrician and executive director of Farm
Sanctuary, the nation's leading farm animal protection organization,
today issued the following statement about the next wave of swine flu
outbreaks:
"With the
world facing additional swine flu casualties, the crucial question of
the virus' origins remains unanswered. Our dual priorities at this time
must be minimizing the spread of H1N1 and determining where it came
from, for only by identifying and fully understanding the source of its
inception can we hope to form an effective defense against it in the
coming months. Perhaps even more importantly, only by scientifically
understanding how swine flu came to be can we prevent future outbreaks
that claim an even greater number of lives in the coming years.
We
know for certain that swine flu was man-made (that is, it was formed
under artificial conditions that do not occur in the natural world).
Our goal, therefore, must be to pinpoint the combination of conditions
that served as the virus' breeding ground and dismantle these elements
so that they can no longer produce similar diseases. The various pieces
of environmental and epidemiological evidence accumulated so far
suggest: that swine flu incubated and formed in the pork industry's
high-density factory farms, where it infected workers who passed the
virus to their neighbors.
With
tens of thousands of pigs tightly confined together in warehouses where
they are steeped in their own feces, modern factory farms make
virtually perfect laboratories for the development of unprecedented
zoonotic disease strains. In addition to H1N1, which is caused by a
virus, the only way producers can keep these selectively bred and
physically mutilated pigs alive in such filthy environments is to lace
their feed with massive doses of antibiotics. However, this produces
medication-resistant bacterial pathogens that spread rapidly throughout
entire herds because animals have no immunity to them. Such practices
make for increased production and revenues, but carry a heavy price in
hidden costs - among them the endangerment of public health and safety.
New and unpredictable
human-animal viruses will continue to proliferate on factory farms as
long as the meat industry is allowed to operate without meaningful
government regulation, inspection or oversight. Now, as swine flu
returns to exact more damage and take more lives, we must decide as a
society which is more important: protecting human lives or pork
industry profits. The first step in making the right choice is to find
the smoking swine flu gun before another shot is fired, and pry it from
the hand of the remorseless culprit who pulled the trigger."
An article from Dr. Kornberg on Swine Flu can be found on Farm Sanctuary's Web site at www.farmsanctuary.org/issues/factoryfarming/health/swine_flu.html.
If you are interested in speaking with Dr. Kornberg, please contact me at 646-369-6212 or mturner@farmsanctuary.org
Farm Sanctuary fights the disastrous effects of animal agriculture on animals, the environment, social justice, and public health through rescue, education, and advocacy.
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