Viva! 8 York Court Wilder Street Bristol BS2 8QH Tel: 0117 944 1000 Fax: 0117 924 4646 email: media@viva.org.uk	14 June 2001 Meningitis Health Threat From Factory-Farmed Pigs A 30 year-old pig farm worker has died from the ‘pig meningitis bacteria’ Streptococcus suis (Vet Record, May 2001). The organism causes meningitis, lameness and septicaemia in pigs. It was the cause of an outbreak of lameness in the farm where the worker was painting pig sheds and hosing pens. Meningitis and a string of other diseases potentially fatal to humans are spreading rapidly through Britain’s pig farms because of the appalling conditions in which animals are kept. This disturbing news is based on a two-year investigation and report into pig farming by animal campaign group Viva!. Viva! warns that diseases now rife in factory farms are a growing threat to human health. S suis from pigs is capable of jumping the species barrier and infecting humans - causing meningitis or septicaemia. There have been 38 recorded human meningitis infections in the UK but the number of deaths has not been released. Those who recover may suffer from deafness, disturbed balance and paralysis. Handling meat is a primary route of infection but eating it may also be a cause. In the case of the farm worker, who died from septicaemia, the infection may have entered through a foot abrasion as a result of contaminated water soaking his boot. Alternatively he may have inhaled contaminated water spray or transferred bacteria from his hands to mouth. Viva!’s investigation of 18 English pig farms shows powerful videoed evidence of widespread overcrowding, filth, neglect and abuse - all factors that help spread disease. The video shows dead pigs left amongst living animals; sows imprisoned in pens little bigger than their bodies and giving birth into their own excreta; a sow covered in flies and haemorrhaging profusely into a gangway; pigs caked in their own excreta; maggot-ridden carcasses piled up near holding pens; dead animals abandoned in gangways; uncovered pits filled with rotting pig carcasses; pigs paralysed in their hind quarters dragging themselves around filthy sties; and animals with ruptures almost the size of footballs. At least one of the farms boasted an Assured British Meat quality symbol and two claimed to be approved by the RSPCA-owned Freedom Food label. Viva!’s 76-page report makes clear that it isn’t just meningitis which threatens human health. Nearly a quarter of the national herd is infected with salmonella and campylobacter, swine influenza, pneumonic pasteurellosis are all rife. New diseases are appearing and one, post-weaning multisystemic syndrome (PWMS) - a wasting disease - was first diagnosed only in 1999 but is now sweeping through herds. The constant use of antibiotics used to try and control this range of diseases has helped to produce antibiotic resistant superbugs, which are now seen as a major human health threat. “The farms in which we filmed were chosen entirely at random yet they show widespread, legalised animal abuse”, says Juliet Gellatley, director of Viva! “We complained to MAFF about several of them and all our complaints were dismissed. It shows that not only does MAFF have no interest in animal welfare - it has the same contempt for human welfare.” For copies of Viva!s Pig in Hell video and report, contact Juliet Gellatley on 0117 944 1000 (office hours Mon-Fri).