It was also determined that the strain contained genes from four different flu viruses: North American swine influenza, North American avian influenza, human influenza, and two swine influenza viruses typically found in Asia and Europe.... According to the researchers, movement of live pigs between Eurasia and North America* "seems to have facilitated the mixing of diverse swine influenza viruses, leading to the multiple reassortment events associated with the genesis of the (new H1N1) strain."... as of early June 2009, Schuchat reported "encouraging news" regarding any mutations to date, by announcing that samples of the virus from points around the globe are "genetically identical" to the strain found in the United States. "We have tested isolates from a wide geographic area, from the Americas, Europe, from Asia and New Zealand and we are not seeing variations in isolates from the genetic testing we do here."
According to the researchers, movement of live pigs between Eurasia and North America* "seems to have facilitated the mixing of diverse swine influenza viruses, leading to the multiple reassortment events associated with the genesis of the (new H1N1) strain."...
as of early June 2009, Schuchat reported "encouraging news" regarding any mutations to date, by announcing that samples of the virus from points around the globe are "genetically identical" to the strain found in the United States. "We have tested isolates from a wide geographic area, from the Americas, Europe, from Asia and New Zealand and we are not seeing variations in isolates from the genetic testing we do here."
----- *LIVESTOCK import/export
Choices,2005:"Since the implementation of CUSTA, Canadian exports of live hogs to the United States have grown from 1.1 million head in 1989 to 8.5 million head in 2004, accounting for all but a few hundred head of US hog imports (Figure 4). ...Most US hog exports to Mexico have been for slaughter, averaging 86% of the total since the implementation of NAFTA. In 1992, 1997, and 2002, slightly more than one half of US hog exports to Mexico were for breeding. US hog exports to Mexico during 2004 were 138,775 head and accounted for 80% of US exports. Other US hog exports, particularly those to China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea, are mainly breeding stock...."
AgMRC.org,2006:"Canada accounts for the majority of total U.S. pork imports. Live hog imports totaled 8.7 million head in 2006. USDA reports 66 percent of the live imports are typically feeder pigs. The remaining percent are slaughter-ready animals. The Foreign Ag Service claims the United States and Canadian pork markets are increasingly integrated in the movement of live pigs. Denmark comprises 10 percent of U.S. pork imports. ... Live hog exports from the United States have averaged less than 1 percent of total U.S. hog slaughter. In 2006, the United States exported 164,464 live hogs. More than 90 percent of the live exports go to Mexico with the balance being sold to Asian countries as breeding stock."
FinalCall,2007:"The UN Food and Agriculture Organization recently released a study called "The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources," which found that an over-reliance on some breeds of livestock imported from the United States and Europe--including Holstein-Friesian cows, egg-laying White Leghorn chickens, and fast-growing large white pigs--is causing the loss of at least one indigenous livestock breed per month."
etc etc
I'll leave the trail of live poultry to you Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
New flu has been around for years in pigs - study | Reuters
WASHINGTON, June 11 (Reuters) - The new H1N1 virus, which has caused the first pandemic of the 21st century, appears to have been circulating undetected among pigs for years, researchers reported on Thursday. Although health officials have been watching for new influenza viruses in humans, animal health regulators have missed the opportunity to check swine, the researchers reported. Britons Andrew Rambaut of the University of Edinburgh and Oliver Pybus of Oxford University, and Yi Guan of the University of Hong Kong examined the genetic sequence of the new H1N1 swine flu virus. Like others who have done the same, they show it is a mixture of other viruses that had been circulating in pigs, one of which was itself a mixture including swine, human and avian-like genetic sequences. "We show that it was derived from several viruses circulating in swine, and that the initial transmission to humans occurred several months before recognition of the outbreak," they wrote. "Movement of live pigs between Eurasia and North America seems to have facilitated the mixing of diverse swine influenza viruses, leading to the multiple reassortment events associated with the genesis of the (new H1N1) strain," they added. "Yet despite widespread influenza surveillance in humans, the lack of systematic swine surveillance allowed for the undetected persistence and evolution of this potentially pandemic strain for many years." They said this new pandemic "provides further evidence of the role of domestic pigs in the ecosystem of influenza A."
Movement of live pigs between Eurasia and North America
My notes should be leading readers to the conclusion that (a) North America (Canada, USA) does not import live pigs (or poultry) from Eurasia; (b) North America exports livestock (cattle, swine, poultry) to all points south (e.g. Mexico) and east (e.g. China); and (c) breed of NA export livestock is limited by design to support mass marketing conditions and yield.
Asian producers are net importers of intermediate and finished meat products from NA.
This information is not controversial, but the 'epidemiologists' consulted imply bilateral trade parity contributes to H1N1 genetic anomaly, although distribution of reported H1N1 infection does not support that conclusion.
In other words, they are reluctant to attribute ideal H1N1 culture to NA livestock. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Therefore I'm a bit shocked to find th term in a Reuters headline. The peak-to-trough part of the business cycle is an outlier. Carnot would have died laughing.
Or the venerable wiki footnotes: the assumption that H1N1 genome derives from livestock (not intermediate or finished goods) trade between Eurasia and North America is not supported by data in the PR. Why?
I search the interboobz for the phrases "US live hog imports","US livestock imports","US live hog imports from asia" and so forth. Aside from the trades (selected, above), yahoo! returned a butt-load of NM customs and USDA pages.I t's the end of the day though, so I don't download the pdf or zip data tables to mine two lines (hogs, poultry) out of cattle exports seven ways to Sunday in each of the past 20 years.
I've assembled sufficient information to posit a pathogenic origin of H1N1: US feed, breed "crops" and technical stock exports.
As opposed to morbid obesity.
I'm going to read that UN report in its entirety. How 'bout you? Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Did I posit morbid obesity as an origin for H1N1?
All I said is that I don't find it surprising that the morbidly obese might be more susceptible to the opportunistic infections that actually kill flu patients since their lungs are already under strain from all that extra fat. Therefore I asked whether obesity is a factor in seasonal flu mortality. If it isn't, then the link to obesity is specific to the new flu and therefore interesting.
The fact that current farm practices are conducive to breeding new disease strains should not be controversial. The peak-to-trough part of the business cycle is an outlier. Carnot would have died laughing.
All I said is that I don't find it surprising ... If it isn't, then the link to obesity is specific to the new flu and therefore interesting.
So I gathered and retrieved a quote from the bloomberg article to illustrate a dimension of the experts' indifference to H1N1 pathogenesis. Obesity should be uninteresting to epidemiologists who purport to investigate the origin and propagation of communicable disease precisely because it is a pre-existing condition, characteristic, of morbidity per se.
Try to magine my dismay then as I read this ridiculous article.
The fact that current farm practices are conducive to breeding new disease strains should not be controversial.
Quite. But institutional medical PR avoids industrial analyses and prophylatic recommendations, preferring to promote palliatives case by case.
That is, in my book, a failure of public offices, made all the more disturbing and dismal by persisting communications to characterize H1N1 symptoms as a threat to humanity so far greater than obesity, diabetes, hypertension, HPV, CHF, COPD, prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction, war, and of course life-style
as to warrant mandatory vaccination. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
