In the News: Egypt starts pig slaughter, some farmers resist
CAIRO, April 30 (Reuters) – Egypt started seizing and slaughtering pig herds on Thursday as a precaution against swine flu despite resistance by farmers and criticism from the United Nations, officials and farmers said.
Egypt, already hit hard by bird flu, fears another flu virus could spread quickly in a country where most of the roughly 80 million people live in the densely packed Nile Valley, many in crowded slums around Cairo.
But the United Nations said the mass cull of up to 400,000 pigs was “a real mistake” because the new viral strain — a mix of swine, avian and human viruses — has not actually been found in pigs.
Farmers in the most populous Arab country said the state had begun confiscating animals anyway.
“They have destroyed us. The pigs were our livelihood,” said 21-year-old Hanan Ahmed, whose family runs a small farm with around 25 pigs in Cairo.
“They took them. They kidnapped them. And they beat them and us. They said they will take them to the slaughterhouse and kill them there,” she added, saying she had received no compensation.
