Four village doctors in Limburg, The Netherlands, wrote a letter to the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, citing their concern for the health of local residents as they called for a halt to the planned construction of a pig and chicken factory farming facility.

Their concerns were confirmed in research conducted by Dr. Ellen Silbergeld, a professor of environmental health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US.

Professor Silbergeld measured the effect of driving in a car behind a truck transporting factory farm chickens, and found increasing levels of pathogenic bacteria, some of which were antibiotic resistant, on the surfaces and in the air inside the cars traveling behind the trucks.

With a total tally that is too high to count, swine flu infections continue to spread unabated. China alone now has around 16,000 confirmed cases.

In Europe, 606 new cases were reported in a 24-hour period, most of which were diagnosed in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Sweden. Germany also reported her first death.

The United States estimates fatalities of more than 600 and over 9,000 hospitalizations. Thirteen new losses brought India’s steadily rising death toll to 298. Yemen is also reporting a steep rise in swine flu, with total cases reaching 199, and Egypt has seen a total of 922 cases thus far.

Hospitalizations for severe cases reached nearly 300 in Formosa (Taiwan), while the most recent count of global swine flu fatalities is 4,216.

It saddens us to see this relentless trend afflicting more people each day.
We send our support, Dutch doctors for standing up to protect your community from the multiple health risks associated with animal farms and our thanks for Dr. Silbergeld’s revealing research.

Our prayers for the rapid elimination of such disease breeding grounds through a global adoption of wholesome plant-based fare.

Reference
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