Egypt orders slaughter of all pigs over swine flu

[Faun]

Egypt began slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country Wednesday as a precautionary measure against the spread of swine flu even though no cases have been reported here yet, the Health Ministry said.

The move immediately provoked resistance from pig farmers. At one large pig farming center just north of Cairo, farmers refused to cooperate with Health Ministry workers who came to slaughter the animals and the workers left without carrying out the government order.

"It has been decided to immediately start slaughtering all the pigs in Egypt using the full capacity of the country's slaughterhouses," Health Minister Hatem el-Gabaly told reporters after a Cabinet meeting with President Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt's overwhelmingly Muslim population does not eat pork due to religious restrictions. But the animals are raised and consumed by the Christian minority, which some estimates put at 10 percent of the population.

Health Ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman estimated there were between 300,000-350,000 pigs in Egypt.

Agriculture Minister Amin Abaza told reporters that farmers would be allowed to sell the pork meat so there would be no need for compensation.

In 2008, following fears over diseases spread by animals, Mubarak ordered all pig and chicken farms moved out of population areas. But the order was never implemented.

Pigs can be found in many places around Muslim world, often raised by religious minorities who can eat pork. But they are banned entirely in some Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Libya.

In Jordan, the government decided Wednesday to shut down the country's five pig farms, involving 800 animals, for violating public health safety regulations.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090429/...gypt_swine_flu

Bunch of idiots ! Swine Flu is spreading from Human to Human contact now. Whats the use of killing all these pigs ? Kill all humans instead, asslols.

[naveen_reloaded]

pigs should start protesting... LOL.... silly mankind...

[red_devil]

WTF !!

[eggman]

@ichi :Change your avatar buddy, your pig seems infected!!!
Don't spread swine flu it to TD!!!

[thewisecrab]

So much for ichi's dancing pig

[Ecstasy]

RIP pigs!! lol

[Disc_Junkie]

RIP lolling cats and crabs!!

[Faun]

Originally Posted by eggman

@ichi :Change your avatar buddy, your pig seems infected!!!
Don't spread swine flu it to TD!!!

Use this to protect yourself:
http://www.ffp3masks.co.uk/

[iinfi]

WHO changes swine flu name to 'H1N1 influenza', 257 confirmed cases

Keiji Fukuda, the health security chief of the WHO, said it would cease use of the word "swine" and stick with the scientific title of a new variant of influenza A(H1N1).

"We know it is an H1N1 virus. This is scientifically accurate and doesn't place any stigmas," he said.

"This is to try to reduce some of the overreactions to swine flu as a name," Fukuda said, urging people not to overstep in their reactions.

The spread of the virus is believed to be in the form of human-to-human transmission and not from pigs or pork. In spite of moves by states to ban imports of pork from affected countries, the WHO has insisted eating properly prepared pig flesh was not a danger.