The article written by Mike Davis in 2009 discusses how such diseases viruses like the swine flu and SARS are created, and spread. As Davis says, the majority of the illnesses like the swine flu are created by forcing farm animals to live in very close quarters with already compromised immune systems. When this happens, viruses jump back and forth combining and eventually becoming immune to the antibiotics. Furthermore given enough time, all of the viruses are able to jump from pig to human, thereby creating a virus that is immune to most major antibiotics and have the ability to spread to humans.
In a time when industrial feed lots and mass production are the way things are done Davis brings up the questions of screening, prevention and cooperation between governments. Davis believes that more money needs to be spent on prevention of naturally occurring diseases like the swine flu rather that the billions that are being spent now on fears of bioterrorism. In the same vain, because there was little cooperation between the US and Mexico, it took about a week to identify the swine flu, and another week for the US to be informed by Mexico of the potential pandemic.
Discussion Questions:
1. Would the use of early surveillance have been able to pick up on the imminent swine flu outbreak?
2. Should the Feed lots use strong antibiotics in their feed? If not how do you recommend they keep their animals alive and their company economically viable?
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