On April 30, the World Health Organization *ratcheted up the threat alert for the swine flu epidemic to Phase 5 (out of 6). Its H1N1-type virus is nearly identical to that of the Spanish flu, which killed more than 50 million people in 1918-19.
Today’s factory farms constantly expose sick, crowded, highly stressed animals to contaminated feces, urine and other secretions. This provides ideal breeding grounds for the replication and mutation of viruses and bacteria into more lethal forms.
In fact, Wikipedia lists more than 70 human diseases that are frequently [associated with] animal confinement and crowding. Among these are such infamous killers as AIDS, bubonic plague, cholera, diphtheria, Ebola and dengue fever, measles, SARS, smallpox, West Nile virus, and yellow fever (www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoonotic_diseases).
Every one of us can help prevent the development and spread of these killer diseases by replacing animal products in our diet with healthful vegetables, fresh fruits and whole grains. These foods don’t carry deadly microbes (unless contaminated by animal waste), are touted by every major health-advocacy organization and were the recommended fare in the Garden of Eden.
— Fernando Lopez
Asheville
It’s a simple solution diet-wise. Stop eating dead animal body parts. It is the cruelest business and we will be much healthier without eating the poor cows and pigs.