Swine Flu Outbreak Linked to NC Hogs

Scientists tracing the origins of the swine flu have linked it in preliminary analysis to new strains of the flu among hogs first identified in 1998 on a factory farm in North Carolina. The revelation is triggering scientists and animal rights activist to point to long published warnings about crowded factory hog farming and long-distance live animal transportation.

According to scientists studying the strain's genetic makeup, the swine flu has its ancestry in an outbreak among pigs that first struck a hog farm in Newton Grove, NC in August, 1998. The flu spread from there to hogs in other states like Texas, and caused warnings about the potential for a human epidemic.

The current strain of swine flu hasn't been detected in US hogs and isn't caught by eating pork. The strain has shown the ability to mutate over time and jump among species.

The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called on NC Governor Bev Perdue to close the state's factory hog farms. According to industry estimates, North Carolina has about 10 million pigs being raised on hog farms.

Reports from the Humane Society have sited factory farms in its analysis of the history of the H1N1 virus. A report funded last year by the Pew Charitable Trusts emphasized that viruses can spread quickly among pigs in the close quarters of such farms.

The Center for Disease Control made the eight-chromosome genetic sequence of the swine flu available last week, prompting scientists to link it to a hybrid human-pig-bird strain that made the NC connection clear.

"Pigs are amazing mixing bowls for creating new viruses," said Bob Martin, the Pew official who was the executive director of their study. "It's a matter of when, not if. The structure of the system is the problem."

In August 1998 thousands of breeding sows fell ill at the Newberry factory hog farm. A new swine flu virus was discovered there, identified as a human-pig hybrid virus that scientist warned had picked up three human flu genes.

By the end of 1998 scientist claimed the virus had acquired two gene segments from bird flu viruses as well, becoming a new "triple reassortment virus" which was actually a hybrid of a human virus, a pig virus, and a bird virus.

Outbreaks followed in Texas, Iowa and Minnesota. In early 1999 blood samples taken from 4,382 hogs across the country found that over 20 percent tested positive for exposure to the triple hybrid swine flu virus.

By that time, epidemiologists were warning about the new viral strain and the potential for a human outbreak. Scientist did not identify this strain in people, but the swine flu that is now spreading among humans is a mutation they say came from this virus.

Scientist believe it is possible that a human flu virus may have started circulating in hog farms, and by mutation caused the strain in pigs that led to the triple-hybrid virus and later H1N1.

North Carolina is the home of the nation's largest hog production operation, and has the densest pig population in North America. The industry restructured in the early 1990s following the model of Tyson Food's chicken management with industrial-size factories and longer-distance shipping of animals. The state is also one of the countries' largest poultry producers.

Currently North Carolina has twice as many corporate hog factories as any other state.