It's been almost a decade since swine flu first dominated the national news, causing people to panic after a pandemic that started in Mexico spread to the U.S. in 2009 and resulted in more than 274,300 hospitalizations and 12,400 deaths. (The global death toll may have been as high as 575,400.)
But just because swine flu hasn't been making headlines as often as it once did _ now only popping up when there's a regional outbreak or when kids get sick after visiting a petting zoo _ that doesn't mean the disease has gone away or is any less of a threat.
Case in point: Swine flu recently sickened around 120 people from at least 25 states who attended a national letter carriers' convention in Grand Rapids, Mich. Health officials say it was the same H1N1 strain that emerged in 2009 and has been circulating ever since.
In early August, an outbreak of African swine fever began spreading throughout China, where there are about 700 million pigs _ half the world's pig population. Authorities say that the virus can survive for several weeks, living in pork products, in slaughterhouses and on trucks used for transporting pigs.
An official with the U.K.'s National Pig Association says it's only a matter of time before swine fever spreads to other countries. She admits that meat industry insiders believe "it's not a matter of if it's going to happen, it's when it's going to happen."
Health officials are quick to point out that people can't get swine flu or swine fever by eating pigs. But medical experts _ and meat industry representatives _ never really hammer home the most significant fact: Swine flu and swine fever exist primarily because humans raise pigs for food.
Swine flu is called "swine flu" for a reason _ because it afflicts pigs. The virus thrives at agricultural fairs and on pig farms, where tens of thousands of pigs are crammed together in filthy, damp sheds that reek of urine and feces. Animals are usually kept on antibiotics so that they can survive the cramped, putrid conditions. They're slaughtered on kill floors that are contaminated with feces, vomit and other bodily fluids, making it easy for the organisms that cause swine flu and other harmful diseases, like salmonella, listeria, and E. coli, to flourish.
A U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization representative once said that the "intensive industrial farming of livestock" was an "opportunity for emerging disease." Intensive crowding and confinement are breeding grounds for pathogens, and animal-borne viruses like the ones that cause swine flu, bird flu and other illnesses can mutate into forms that sicken humans. An H3N2 swine flu strain, for example, sickened at least 145 people, mostly in Indiana and Ohio, in 2012.
People who are in close contact with pigs _ or with individuals who are around pigs _ are especially at risk. This summer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report warning that pigs exhibited at fairs can infect children and other at-risk individuals with swine flu.
It should be clear by now: If we don't want pigs or other farmed animals to be our downfall _ either through animal-borne illness or food-induced heart disease, diabetes or cancer _ we need to stop raising them for food and going to gawk at them in fairs and other agricultural exhibits.
We can still enjoy the taste of pork without killing pigs, because many companies offer tasty vegan versions. And if your kids like seeing pigs (who have charming personalities when you get to know them), why not watch a fun movie like "Charlotte's Web" or "Babe"? It's much kinder than going to an agricultural exhibit _ and you definitely won't catch swine flu by watching a talking pig plead for compassion.
