By now, everyone has heard about the so-called "Swine Flu". But here in Egypt, it has taken a whole different turn than in other parts of the world. The government decided to slaughter 300,000 pigs over fear of the spread of this "Swine Flu".
The decision to kill the pigs led the World Health Organization (WHO) to announce last Thursday that they would no longer refer to the new influenza strain as ‘swine flu,’ fearing that it had been misleading on the nature of the disease. Rather than calling it the 'swine flu', they decided to stick to the technical, scientific name H1N1 influenza A.
The World Organization for Animal Health indicated that “there is no evidence of infection in pigs, nor of humans acquiring infection directly from pigs.” So, this decision to slaughter so many pigs has had devastating effects across Egypt.There have been clashes and riots breaking out across Egypt because pig farmers are angry about this decision. The farmers feel their pigs should have at least been tested for the flu before they were slaughtered. For most of these farmers and workers on these farms, pig rearing was the only thing they had ever done. They are worried how they are going to make a living now.
The way I see it, this is just an excuse to get rid of the pigs in Egypt. Egypt is 95% Muslim, and Muslims do not eat pork. They believe pigs are disgusting, dirty animals. I definately feel sorry for the people that are going to be hurting for a long time because of this unnecessary decision.
If you would like to read more about this horrific situation here in Egypt, you can go to this link:
http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/. This is an article that I took some of the above information from.
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