MNPhysicist
07 Mar 2009, 02:07 PM
First of all, please bear with me, I'm no biologist, and while I find it fascinating, I have zero formal education in the field. Thus I present a fairly wild, albeit scary hypothesis.
Years ago, farm operations were highly unique, widely distributed, and a processor might work with thousands of different farms. Today, a farm might have many thousands of cows or hogs, and may even break up their operations into specific animals by age. Ie, one farm raises calves and sends them to another once they reach a certain age, and consistency and efficiency in process is key to keep the revenue stream high. This lack of diversity has the potential to accentuate specific gene pools which may pose a risk to public health .
Case in point, the pig brain aerosol case. (http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/hazardous/topics/eegrandrounds/abattoirpin.pdf) (dont look if you have a weak constitution, there are a few photos in the report)
Large hog lots are a fairly recent phenomena, starting to gain momentum in the early 90's, but as of the late 90's, short of small sustainable ag efforts, commercial ag is dominated by mega scale operations. As each succeeding generation of hogs is raised in such a fashion, it would seem that the lack of diversity has the potential to cause marked increases in specific genetics.
PIN is a very new disease, and for now is only attributed to aerosols in pork processing plants.
Pork aerosol processes have been around for quite some time as a labor savings measure.
The CDC appears to only have looked for specific pathogens, is it possible something totally new is on the scene?
Is it possible the pig brain aerosol situation is similar to a canary in a coal mine?
Years ago, farm operations were highly unique, widely distributed, and a processor might work with thousands of different farms. Today, a farm might have many thousands of cows or hogs, and may even break up their operations into specific animals by age. Ie, one farm raises calves and sends them to another once they reach a certain age, and consistency and efficiency in process is key to keep the revenue stream high. This lack of diversity has the potential to accentuate specific gene pools which may pose a risk to public health .
Case in point, the pig brain aerosol case. (http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/hazardous/topics/eegrandrounds/abattoirpin.pdf) (dont look if you have a weak constitution, there are a few photos in the report)
Large hog lots are a fairly recent phenomena, starting to gain momentum in the early 90's, but as of the late 90's, short of small sustainable ag efforts, commercial ag is dominated by mega scale operations. As each succeeding generation of hogs is raised in such a fashion, it would seem that the lack of diversity has the potential to cause marked increases in specific genetics.
PIN is a very new disease, and for now is only attributed to aerosols in pork processing plants.
Pork aerosol processes have been around for quite some time as a labor savings measure.
The CDC appears to only have looked for specific pathogens, is it possible something totally new is on the scene?
Is it possible the pig brain aerosol situation is similar to a canary in a coal mine?