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Op-Ed Contributor
Best Way To Avoid H1N1 Flu Virus is to Camp Out in a Pig Farm
By Robert Paul Reyes
"Humans have it. Pigs don't. At least not yet, and U.S. pork producers are doing everything they can to make sure that the new H1N1 virus, known around the world as the "swine flu," stays out of their herds.
'That is the biggest concern, that your herd could somehow contract this illness from an infected person,' said Kansas hog farmer Ron Suther, who is banning visitors from his sow barns and requiring maintenance workers, delivery men and other strangers to report on recent travels and any illness before they step foot on his property." Reuters
The H1N1 virus is commonly known as the swine flu virus, but pigs don't have it. There is absolutely no evidence that the H1N1 virus is in the pig population in the United States. In fact if you want to make sure you don't get H1N1 camp out in a pig farm for the next couple of weeks.
That hasn't stopped the government of Egypt from ordering the slaughter of the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country. Egypt is a Muslim country, but pigs are raised and consumed mainly by the Coptic Christian minority.
Americans aren't quite as insane as the Egyptians, but there are some in this country who refuse to eat pork products for fear of catching the H1N1 virus. The media must emphasize that a person can't contract the illness from consuming pork products. Our economy is already in shambles, the last thing we need is for the pork industry to suffer serious losses because of ignorance surrounding the transmission of the H1N1 virus.
It's pigs who need protection from humans, not the other way around. Ron Suther isn't the only pig farmer who has banned visitors from his pig barns.
We should help American pork producers by buying plenty of pork products. All this talk of pigs is making me very hungry, I think I'm going to have barbeque pork ribs for lunch today.
Robert Paul Reyes is a NewsBlaze writer on Politics, Pop Culture and Pointless Pontificating. Contact him by writing to NewsBlaze.
Tags: h1n1, swine flu, pigs, pork, robert paul reyes
* The views of Opinion writers do not necessarily reflect the views of NewsBlaze
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