Evolution And History

The Culture of Neolithic Settlements 245

Globalscape

AFRICA

AUSTRALIA

ANTARCTICA

ASIA

EUROPE

SOUTH

AMERICA

NORTH

AMERICA

Atlantic

Ocean

Pa c i fi c

Ocean

Pa c i fi c

Ocean

Indian

Ocean

Arctic

Ocean

1–10

11–50

51–100

101 and more

Country/territory/area

with confirmed cases

Cumulative deaths

Factory Farming Fiasco?

In April 2009 protective masks and

gloves were a common sight in Mexico

City as the news of the first cases of

swine flu pandemic appeared in the

United States and Mexico. On June 11,

2009, the World Health Organization

(WHO) made the pandemic official, and

by July cases had been reported in three

quarters of the states and territories the

WHO monitors. Scientists across the

world are examining the genetic makeup

of the virus to determine its origins.

From the outset of the pandemic,

many signs have pointed to a pig farm-

ing operation in Veracruz, Mexico,

called Granjas Caroll, which is a sub-

sidiary of Smithfield Foods, the world’s

largest pork producer. However, Ruben

Donis, an expert virologist from the

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, has

come to a different conclusion based

on genetic analysis. According to an

article in the journal Science, Donis

“suggests that the virus may have

originated^ in a U.S. pig that traveled to

Asia as part of the hog trade.^ The virus

may have infected a human there, who

then traveled^ back to North America,

where the virus perfected human-to-

human^ spread, maybe even moving

from the United States to Mexico.”a

Another report has linked the current

strain of swine flu to a strain that ran

through factory farms in North Carolina

in 1998 and to the avian flu that killed

over 50 million people in 1918.b

While scientists examine the ge-

netic evidence for swine flu, a look

at factory farming shows how these

practices facilitate the proliferation of

disease. For example, the pig popula-

tion of North Carolina numbers about

10 million, and most of these pigs

are crowded onto farms of over 5,000

animals. These pigs travel across the

country as part of farming operations. A

pig may be born in North Carolina, then

travel to the heartland of the United

States to fatten up before a final trip to

the slaughterhouses in California.

The crowded conditions in pig

farms mean that if the virus enters a

farm it quickly can infect many pigs,

which are then shipped to other places

spreading the virus further, with many

opportunities for the virus to pass be-

tween species. Health risks of global

food distribution have long been a

concern, and the swine flu outbreak

elevates these concerns to a new level.

Global Twister Do you think the

swine flu pandemic should lead to

changes in meat production and distri-

bution globally?

a Cohen, J. (2009). Out of Mexico? Scien-

tists ponder swine flu’s origin. Science 324

(5928), 700–702.

b Trifonov, V., et al. (2009). The origin

of the recent swine influenza A (H1N1)

virus infecting humans. Eurosurveillance

14 (17). http://www.eurosurveillance.org/

ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=19193.

FPO

© UPPA/Photoshot © Jim Richardson/Corbis

courtyards. In addition to these houses, a stone tower that
would have taken a hundred people over a hundred days
to build was located inside one corner of the wall, near the
spring. A staircase inside it probably led to a mud-brick

building on top. This massive wall—near mud-brick stor-

age facilities as well as peculiar structures of possible cer-

emonial significance—provides evidence of social changes

in these early farming communities. A village cemetery