Aporkalypse now! Essential H1N1 “don’t call it swine flu” reading

Smithfield smeared: The Mexican government's chief epidemiologist said it's "highly improbable" that the Smithfield-operated Veracruz factory farm is responsible for the nation's swine-flu outbreak. Why? Pigs at the farm are from North America, while the genetic material in the virus is from Europe and Asia. Article also details the pleasing news about how Smithfield's in a panic over the bad PR and its shares have dropped nearly 3%. (Wall Street Journal)

Um, don't they need you guys?: Mexico's government is suspending all nonessential activity of the federal government and private business as the number of confirmed swine flu cases jumped to 160. (MSNBC)

Swine flu may be accurate after all: The pork industry is squealing over naming the new virus swine flu, since it's supposedly a blend and hasn't been traced to any pigs, nor can you catch it from pork. (New York Times) Obama has begun referring to it as the H1N1 virus, "evidently in deference to U.S. pork producers," says the AP. Meanwhile, Tom Laskawy digs up an "intriguing notice" posted to the International Society for Infectious Diseases by Columbia University researchers suggesting that the current swine flu outbreak may be a 'reassortment' (i.e. rearrangement) of existing swine flu viruses and not a swine, avian, and human influenza combo. (Grist)

If you're right, you're a hero; if you're wrong, you're an Internet arsonist: Praising blogs for goosing mainstream media (aka MSM) to investigate whether industrial hog farms might be the swine flu outbreak’s “ground zero,” this article credits FoE Tom Philpott at Grist to be the first to blog the possible connection. But since so far there seems to be no direct link, bloggers get spanked for being on the wrong side of asking tough questions vs. jumping to conclusions. (Columbia Journalism Review) Related: Longtime science journalist (and vegan!) Merritt Clifton also says the evidence just isn't there yet, and premature finger-pointing ain't helpful. (Grist)

WashPo raises more Qs than provides As: An interview with a Johns Hopkins professor of molecular microbiology and immunology about swine has us scratching our head. To wit: "The swine A/H1N1 virus has genes from human, swine and avian influenza virus strains. An animal had to have been infected with three different kinds of influenza viruses to generate this particular virus. Housing farm animals together in common pens or yards is one way of transmitting viruses from one species to another. But such housing is not necessarily unsanitary; these are the most common ways small farmers keep their animals." OK… so small farms birthed this pandemic? Uh-huh. (The Swine flu may be all swine, see above or here.) Next: "Influenza in pigs is a respiratory disease, so there is much less risk associated with pig waste…In birds, the flu virus is primarily transmitted via the oral-fecal route, so there is a risk of exposure to avian influenza from an infected bird's waste." OK, but if H1NI is a mixture, isn't it possible it's transmitted by waste? (Washington Post)

The silence of the pigs: Egypt has begin preemptively slaughtering its roughly 300,000 pigs. This may have something to do with the fact that Muslims consider pigs unclean animals and do not eat pork because of religious restrictions, but Egypt did the same with chickens during a bird flu outbreak. (The Associated Press)

As Israel Ignores Swine Flu Reality, Global Risk (The Atlantic Food Channel)

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