Have you been impacted by Influenza A (H1N1)?

[EditorBob]

So, after a few weeks of sensationalist journalism and the misnaming of it as "swine flu," this has clearly turned out to be a non-issue relative to reality. Not to minimize those who died, of course, but compared to the normal flu season, it's not in the same ballpark. CDC likes to throw out a rough average number of 36,000 yearly deaths related to flu/pneumonia, but that number has been questioned, and it might be more accurate to say around 8,000 U.S. deaths directly related to flu. Either way, it's significantly larger than the reported fewer than 50 worldwide deaths from this new strain, as of this morning.

Oddly, it seems the U.S. government managed to not significantly overact, put into place some sane policies and ran through a rational plan to react to a potential threat, then have the good sense to roll back the machine when it became clear that the sky wasn't falling; however, the mainstream media, regardless of political bias, went off the rails again, in part because of the 24-news cycle. The impact on the pork industry has been devastating around the world. Reports like this one, UMinn Professor assess damage, indicate that this thing really did some harm, but not in the way the media thought it would, of course. Not to mention how insanely and bizarrely some other governments responded, like Egypt and its mind-bendingly stupid mandatory swine slaughter.


So, has anyone here been directly or indirectly impacted? Are you seeing any losses to your swine operation; if you're a beef/chicken producer, are you seeing any change either way?

[Gallus]

I'm not a swine producer, so I haven't been directly affected by it this time. I am a small poultry producer, and the AI scare drummed up by the media was a different story, although I will say that most of it was just responding to people's unfounded fear, caused by the irresponsibility of the media coupled with the peoples' gullibility. Remember how when it was bird flu, the media had the 1918 pandemic blamed on that? Now it's swine flu, and all of a sudden that was what caused the 1918 outbreak. Which was it? I agree that some of how the government is handling this does seem reasonable, for a change, including referring to it as H1N1. It's just too hard to make a doomsday headline with H1N1, than it is with "Swine Flu" or "Bird Flu". Unfortunately, the end result, long after the public forgets H1N1, or any other name for it, will be that in their mind, farm animals are disease carriers that may pass sickness on to humans.

[EditorBob]

That's really the hardest part for ag right now, swimming upstream against profoundly loud fear-mongering and negative perception. You nailed it on the head.

Once again, ag has to be its own advocate, stand up for itself, since no one else is will, and get the word out to friends and neighbors who aren't in farming that pigs and chickens are safe! Grassroots, as always... it's too bad all those millions of dollars spent lobbying in Washington for more corn ethanol subsidies that half the farmers in the Midwest have said they don't even need couldn't be put towards better use, like a decent promotional and marketing campaign.

[EditorBob]

Really great column from Andy Vance here:

http://www.buckeyeag.com/blogs/index...on-h1n1?blog=7

[Gallus]

Good article, with one exception. Unfortunatley he tries to place the blame on the backyard flocks as the cause of the AI outbreak in Asia a few years back. There is some truth to what he says about it, but I'm dissappointed that he tries to make it look as though noncommercial producers are a danger, while the commercial producers biosecurity measures are the savior of us all. He conveniently forgets that some of the largest outbreaks of AI and Newcastle in the past in the US have been in commercial flocks. I'm not trying to play the commercial vs backyard game, but if Mr Vance is upset with the distortion of the facts by the media, he shouldn't resort to doing the same himself. If we're going to get anywhere in changing public perception, or the media's tactics, we have to recognize that there may be other valid uses of agricultural resources other than our own. Neither side is without it's problems.

To put this in further perspective, think back to the Avian Influenza outbreak of a few years back. Press reports and made-for-TV movies proclaimed we were all on the verge of a pandemic the likes of which we’d never before seen. Interestingly enough, the disease remained tied to open-housing systems in Asian poultry, centering around so-called backyard flocks and open-air bird markets. The modern biosecurity measures of today’s US poultry producer saved our birds and neighbors from this disease scare. The same concept holds true with the current H1N1 situation.

[EditorBob]

Good points, all. Can't complain about a broad brush and then use one, of course. If I were to hazard a guess, it may not have been his intention, but he did so in haste to press his case and make his H1N1 point. Still, your point is spot on, and it never hurts to keep a commentary honest.