Did SARS mutate from duck, pig feces?

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> http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32244

>

>

> Friday, April 25, 2003

>

> > MYSTERY SUPERFLU

> Did SARS mutate

> from duck, pig feces?

> China's old-world farming practices possible culprit

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> Posted: April 25, 2003

> 1:00 a.m. Eastern

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> By Paul Sperry

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> © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

> The last three influenza pandemics have all originated in Asia - the

> 1957 Asian flu, the 1968 Hong Kong flu and now this year's SARS flu,

> which also has been traced to China's southern Guangdong province, which

> includes Hong Kong.

>

> Why do these virulent new viral strains come out of South China?

>

> Some virologists implicate the farming practices common there. In

> southern provinces of China, farmers raise hens, ducks, pigs and fish in

> one integrated system. They use the droppings and leftover food from the

> pigs to feed the fowl. The fowl droppings, in turn, help fertilize the

> fish ponds.

>

> While it sounds like a perfect system, raising three different species

> with no waste, the species may be exchanging viruses among themselves

> through the feces.

>

> The birds can pass avian flu viruses to swine, where the two viruses

> co-mingle and form a new strain that is passed back to the farmers,

> whose immune system cannot fight the new virus, as the theory goes. The

> pigs, which have a genetic make-up more like humans, act as the mixing

> vessel.

>

> The 1968 Hong Kong flu strain, at least, was traced back to ducks. That

> flu and its cousins have killed more than 250,000 Americans,

> public-health officials estimate.

>

> British zoologist Ernest Naylor and German virologist Christoph

> Scholtissek first made the connection and warned of future superflu

> outbreaks from such Chinese agricultural techniques in a 1988 article in

> Nature.

>

> Regarding SARS, " the most likely scenario is that it has been

> circulating in another species in southern China, and human beings came

> in contact with it this past autumn, perhaps in an agricultural

> setting, " said Dr. Stephen Morse, author of " Emerging Viruses. " " It is

> interesting that this part of Asia is the same geographic area from

> which most known influenza pandemics have arisen. "

>

> The federal Centers for Disease Control is not ready to commit to the

> theory that China's farming practices are to blame for SARS, although

> some say the reluctance has more to do with international politics and

> diplomacy than medicine.

>

> " I can't confirm that it has anything to do with the agricultural

> industry, " said CDC spokeswoman Karen Hunter in a phone interview from

> Atlanta. " We don't have any concrete reasons why influenza sometimes

> comes out of Asia. "

>

> She notes that last century's first flu pandemic, which struck in 1918,

> came out of Spain.

>

> " Even though the last two flu pandemics did come out of Asia, " she

> said, " Asia is not the only place where we see flu viruses mutating and

> changing. "

>

> But one U.S. public-health official, an epidemiologist, says the CDC

> has long acknowledged the theory's merits.

>

> " Certainly such old-world agriculture is not the best of ideas, " he

> said. " The primary reason we in the U.S. are concerned about proper

> disposal of human and animal wastes is for reasons of public health, not

> for aesthetic ones. "

>

> He added they don't yet understand that in mainland China, which is

> still run by a communist government.

>

> Chinese dissident Harry Wu says Chinese farmers also feed human waste

> to pets, whose waste is fed to livestock.

>

> " It is very common in China, in the rural areas, for the dog to clean

> up the human bowel (movement), " he said in a WorldNetDaily interview.

> " You know, the baby makes bowel on the floor (and) the dog will come

> right in and eat it up. "

>

> " The whole environment is like that, " Wu added.

>

> He also cited the Chinese people's indiscriminate, omnivorous diet as a

> possible concern.

>

> " I don't know if these animals are one of the reasons (for SARS), but

> it is true in the southern part of China that they eat all kinds of

> animals, " Wu said. " We make a joke that they eat everything that flies

> except for airplanes, and they eat everything with legs except the

> tables - snails, turtles, chickens, raccoons. Even some right now are

> eating the fetus, unborn babies, as a delicacy. That is cannibalism. "

>

> Wu notes recent speculation by a Russian scientist who posits that the

> SARS virus is man-made, invented by a Chinese military lab as a

> biochemical weapon.

>

> " I'm not sure about that, " he said, " but I wouldn't be surprised " if

> it's true.

>

> Interestingly, influenza fatality rates are virtually unknown. That's

> because there are no concrete figures for the number of people who get

> the flu each year to calculate against the number of reported deaths,

> Hunter says. Many who come down with the flu don't visit the doctor, and

> therefore don't show up in the statistics.

>

> But generally, the fatality rate for the common flu is thought to be

> about 15 percent, which may be inflated given the incomplete data for

> the denominator. The fatality rate for SARS, by comparison, is estimated

> to be running between 4 percent and 10 percent so far.

>

> Previous story:

>

> No SARS testing at U.S. airports

>

>

>

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> Paul Sperry is Washington bureau chief for WorldNetDaily.

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