On The Origin Of The Home Of COVID-19 - 15

The mass-slaughter-of-animals-for-food industry

Some six years ago I indicated that mistreatment of the flora and fauna of the Earth could lead to events that much of the media and many researchers would blame on microbes and viruses, but which in reality were caused by civilization's mistreatment of the Earth's environment (The Real Dangers With Microbes & Viruses, What Did The Mass Extinctions Do To Viruses and Microbes).

In this current series I have pointed out the undisputed reality that a relevant portion of the mistreatment of flora and fauna is done by "the mass-slaughter-of-animals-for-food industry" (On The Origin Of The Home Of COVID-19, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14).

For example:

"To meet this demand [commercialization / population growth], there are several approaches being in force like antibiotic / antimicrobial / hormonal growth promotors. But these methods also lead to major public health concerns ranging from residues to antimicrobial resistance in human population ... It is a well-known fact that microbiota plays a pivotal role in the gastrointestinal health in ruminant and nonruminant animals."
...
"For generations, farmers have used antibiotics to improve production of their chicken, pig, and cattle operations. With use of certain antibiotics on the chopping block because of concerns about the rise of resistant organisms, some are turning from anti to pro—probiotics, that is.

Probiotics, live microorganisms that are a staple of the human wellness industry, have the potential to fulfill many of the roles that antibiotics play down on the farm. Research suggests probiotics can help chickens, pigs, and cows quickly put on weight, efficiently digest feed, and withstand the infectious organisms that tend to lurk wherever animals are kept in close quarters ... But farmers have several ways to raise healthy livestock without relying on antibiotics."

(On The Origin Of The Home Of COVID-19). In other words, it is no secret that "the mass-slaughter-of-animals-for-food industry" is a source of "major public health concerns".

Nor is it a secret that "the mass-slaughter-of-animals-for-food industry" exports its products in a multi-billion dollar annual business:

"Tyson Foods, Inc. is an American multinational corporation based in Springdale, Arkansas, that operates in the food industry. The company is the world's second largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef, and pork after JBS S.A. and annually exports the largest percentage of beef out of the United States. Together with its subsidiaries, it operates major food brands, including Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Ball Park, Wright Brand, Aidells, and State Fair. Tyson Foods ranked No. 80 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue."
...
"'The U.S. food system is a complex network of farmers and the industries that link to them. Those links include makers of farm equipment and chemicals as well as firms that provide services to agribusinesses, such as providers of transportation and financial services. The system also includes the food marketing industries that link farms to consumers, and which include food and fiber processors, wholesalers, retailers, and food service establishments'.

The term food industries covers a series of industrial activities directed at the processing, conversion, preparation, preservation and packaging of foodstuffs. The food industry today has become highly diversified, with manufacturing ranging from small, traditional, family-run activities that are highly labor intensive, to large, capital-intensive and highly mechanized industrial processes. Many food industries depend almost entirely on local agriculture or fishing."
...
"Rarely found on menus in the U.S., variety meat – also called offal or fancy meat – takes many forms: kidneys, livers, stomachs, tendons, aortas, cheek meat, oxtails and more. And because it's highly sought after in key export markets of Egypt, Japan, Peru and Mexico, variety meat [offal] is gold to the U.S. beef industry.

According to the U.S. Meat Export Federation, total U.S. beef exports in 2012 set a new record at $5.51 billion. Beef offal represented $703.1 million, or about 12% of that. It also accounted for 28.4% of the total volume of beef exports.

And, virtually 100% of the U.S. livestock herd is represented in variety meat exports [offal] – some part of every animal is sold to international customers.

'Demand for both large and small intestines would tank without the international market,' says Jerry Wiggs, export salesman for Greater Omaha Packing Company Inc. (OPC). 'We are selling large intestines to South Korea or Koreans who recently moved to the U.S.'

Wiggs says OPC just recently resumed selling small intestines to Mexico, where they had been banned since BSE was found in the U.S. in late 2003."
...
"Edible offal products, which are made from an animal’s intestines, internal organs, and other parts, rarely end up on American plates. Does that mean it simply goes to waste?

Thanks in large part to international trade, the answer is no. Culinary traditions in countries around the world call for the use offal in a wide variety of dishes ... In many places, certain offal products are even considered a delicacy. By looking beyond America’s borders, meat processors have been able to uncover lucrative markets and reach new consumers hungry for American food products.

Consider the case of Mexico, a country that consistently ranks as one of the leading importers of U.S. offal products, also known as “variety meats”. One of the most popular products is tripe, an offal made from a cow’s stomach."

(On The Origin Of The Home Of COVID-19 - 10). The post also points out that 78% of the food fed to mink on mink farms is offal, so when the talking point that "viruses or microbes can't be spread in food" comes your way don't fall for it.

The US offal export business (which the mink farming business relies on for mink food) has caused major damage to countries it has been exporting to, because that commodity is an element of diet:

"The Netherlands is one of 24 countries where mink farming is still legal. In a historic move, the Dutch parliament has voted to permanently close the mink fur farms shut down by COVID-19.
...
The spread of COVID-19 among mink across multiple farms since April resulted in at least two workers catching the virus from the animals and triggered calls for the government to rapidly shut down the industry. “Waiting until 2024 for the mink ban to take effect would have been unjustifiable and irresponsible,” says Sandra Schoenmakers, director of Dutch anti-fur organizations Bont voor Dieren. The latest available figures show that nearly 600,000 mink across 13 farms had been killed by gassing with carbon monoxide on the orders of the Dutch government, but many more are likely to be killed in the coming weeks.

Factory farms and slaughterhouses across the world have become coronavirus hotbeds due to cramped and unsafe working conditions, endangering the lives of workers who have been given inadequate protection by the companies that employ them. While transmission between workers on the Dutch mink farms has not reached the levels seen on agricultural farms, it presents the first case in which humans passed the virus to the farmed animals who then transmitted it back to humans.
...
The intensive breeding of animals on fur farms is an incredibly cruel practice that not only causes immense suffering to animals, but can also serve as a reservoir for coronaviruses".

(On The Origin Of The Home Of COVID-19 - 12). Yes, diet is important, and yes microbes can be passed to those who consume food with microbes in it:

"Editorial Summary

Minor role for host genetics in shaping the microbiota

The composition of the human gut microbiome is determined by many factors. Eran Segal and colleagues performed an extensive statistical analysis of the largest metagenomics-sequenced human cohort so far to determine the contribution of host genotype to microbiome composition. Host genetics has only a minor influence on microbiome variability, which is more strongly associated with environmental factors such as diet. The authors propose a 'microbiome-association index' that describes the association of the microbiome with host phenotype. Combining this measurement with host genetic and environmental data improves the accuracy of predictions about several human metabolic traits, such as glucose and obesity traits."
...
"A wealth of evidence suggests that this incredibly diverse microbial community is regulated by host genetic factors, and more importantly, environmental and dietary factors (4–6)"."
...
"Human gut microbiome composition is shaped by multiple factors but the relative contribution of host genetics remains elusive. Here we examine genotype and microbiome data from 1,046 healthy individuals with several distinct ancestral origins who share a relatively common environment, and demonstrate that the gut microbiome is not significantly associated with genetic ancestry, and that host genetics have a minor role in determining microbiome composition. We show that, by contrast, there are significant similarities in the compositions of the microbiomes of genetically unrelated individuals who share a household, and that over 20% of the inter-person microbiome variability is associated with factors related to diet, drugs and anthropometric measurements. We further demonstrate that microbiome data significantly improve the prediction accuracy for many human traits, such as glucose and obesity measures, compared to models that use only host genetic and environmental data. These results suggest that microbiome alterations aimed at improving clinical outcomes may be carried out across diverse genetic backgrounds."

(ibid). Exported food and food distributed in country by "the mass-slaughter-of-animals-for-food industry" has been a danger to public health for who knows how long.

Here is a preliminary list of countries that "the mass-slaughter-of-animals-for-food industry" exports its products to:

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About Columns in the HTML table below:

'Country' is a list of 249 nations
'Abbr' is the abbreviation of that country used in .gov reports
'Gets USA exports?' indicates whether or not the USDA indicates US exports go to that country
'Were SARS-CoV-2 samples taken?' indicates whether or not medical tests give evidence of SARS-CoV-2 in that country yet (and stored in GenBank)
'GenBank Count' means how many SARS-CoV-2 records (genomic per country) I found in GenBank (example record)

Note: an asterisk (*) in the columns below indicates that the 'no' on exports is a USA location in the eyes of USDA, so by definition (a country can't "export" to itself) there can be no exports (the meat, offal, eggs are used "in country").

---

USDA Export Report (meat, offal, eggs) and
sample counts of virus (SARS-Cov-2) DNA/RNA
taken in those countries as follows:

Country	Abbr	Gets USA exports?	Were SARS-CoV-2 samples taken?	GenBank Count
Afghanistan	AFG	yes	no	0
Aland	ALA	yes	yes	1
Albania	ALB	yes	yes	2
Algeria	DZA	yes	no	0
American Samoa	ASM	no	yes	1
Andorra	AND	yes	yes	4,159
Angola	AGO	yes	yes	1
Anguilla	AIA	yes	yes	1
Antarctica	ATA	no	yes	12
Antigua and Barbuda	ATG	no	yes	1
Argentina	ARG	yes	yes	16
Armenia	ARM	yes	yes	6
Aruba	ABW	yes	no	0
Australia	AUS	yes	yes	1,420
Austria	AUT	yes	yes	5
Azerbaijan	AZE	yes	no	0
Bahamas	BHS	yes	yes	1
Bahrain	BHR	yes	yes	10
Bangladesh	BGD	yes	yes	231
Barbados	BRB	yes	no	0
Belarus	BLR	yes	no	0
Belgium	BEL	yes	yes	3
Belize	BLZ	yes	yes	4
Benin	BEN	yes	yes	2
Bermuda	BMU	yes	no	0
Bhutan	BTN	no	yes	2
Bolivia	BOL	yes	no	0
Saba	BQ	no	yes	9
Bosnia and Herzegovina	BIH	no	no	0
Botswana	BWA	yes	no	0
Bouvet	BVT	no	no	0
Brazil	BRA	yes	yes	16
British Indian Ocean Territory	IOT	yes	no	0
Brunei	BN	yes	yes	11
Bulgaria	BGR	yes	yes	3
Burkina Faso	BFA	yes	yes	3
Burundi	BDI	yes	no	0
Verde	CPV	yes	no	0
Cambodia	KHM	yes	no	0
Cameroon	CMR	yes	yes	5
Canada	CAN	yes	yes	4
Cayman	CYM	yes	no	0
Central African Republic	CAF	yes	no	0
Chad	TCD	yes	no	0
Chile	CHL	yes	yes	11
China	CHN	yes	yes	611
Christmas	CXR	yes	no	0
Cocos (Keeling)	CCK	yes	no	0
Colombia	COL	yes	yes	2
Comoros	COM	yes	yes	25,960
Congo	COD	yes	yes	5
Republic of the Congo	178	yes	yes	108
Cook	COK	yes	yes	10
Costa Rica	CRI	yes	yes	2
Ivory Coast	CIV	yes	yes	5
Croatia	HRV	yes	no	0
Cuba	CUB	yes	yes	2
Curaçao	CUW	yes	no	0
Cyprus	CYP	yes	no	0
Czech	CZE	yes	yes	23
Denmark	DNK	yes	yes	8
Djibouti	DJI	yes	no	0
Dominica	DMA	yes	no	0
Dominican	DOM	yes	yes	96
Ecuador	ECU	yes	yes	61
Egypt	EGY	yes	yes	101
El Salvador	SLV	yes	no	0
Guinea	GNQ	yes	yes	1
Eritrea	ERI	yes	yes	353
Estonia	EST	yes	yes	270
Eswatini	SWZ	no	no	0
Ethiopia	ETH	yes	yes	152
Falkland	FLK	yes	no	0
Faroe	FRO	yes	yes	97
Fiji	FJI	yes	no	0
Finland	FIN	yes	yes	1
France	FRA	yes	yes	87
French Guiana	GUF	yes	no	0
French Polynesia	PYF	yes	no	0
French Southern and Antarctic Lands	ATF	no	no	0
Gabon	GAB	yes	no	0
Gambia	GMB	yes	yes	1
Georgia	GEO	yes	yes	11
Germany	DEU	yes	yes	87
Ghana	GHA	yes	yes	46
Gibraltar	GIB	yes	no	0
Greece	GRC	yes	yes	98
Greenland	GRL	yes	no	0
Grenada	GRD	yes	no	0
Guadeloupe	GLP	yes	no	0
Guam	GUM	no	yes	3
Guatemala	GTM	yes	yes	10
Guernsey	GGY	no	no	0
Guinea	GIN	yes	yes	11
Guinea-Bissau	GNB	yes	no	0
Guyana	GUY	yes	no	0
Haiti	HTI	yes	yes	8
Heard Island and McDonald Islands	HMD	no	no	0
Holy See	VAT	no	yes	2
Honduras	HND	yes	no	0
Hong Kong	HKG	yes	yes	132
Hungary	HUN	yes	yes	7
Iceland	ISL	yes	yes	5
India	IND	yes	yes	467
Indonesia	IDN	yes	no	0
Iran	IRN	yes	yes	79
Iraq	IRQ	yes	yes	10
Ireland	IRL	yes	yes	1
Isle of Man	IMN	no	no	0
Israel	ISR	yes	yes	2
Italy	ITA	yes	yes	45
Jamaica	JAM	yes	yes	8
Japan	JPN	yes	yes	90
Jersey	JEY	no	yes	3
Jordan	JOR	yes	yes	27
Kazakhstan	KAZ	yes	yes	4
Kenya	KEN	yes	yes	3
Kiribati	KIR	yes	no	0
North Korea	PRK	yes	no	0
South Korea	KOR	yes	yes	6
Kuwait	KWT	yes	no	0
Kyrgyzstan	KGZ	yes	no	0
Laos	LAO	yes	yes	1
Latvia	LVA	yes	no	0
Lebanon	LBN	yes	yes	4
Lesotho	LSO	yes	no	0
Liberia	LBR	yes	no	0
Libya	LBY	yes	no	0
Liechtenstein	LIE	yes	yes	1
Lithuania	LTU	yes	no	0
Luxembourg	LUX	yes	yes	2
Macao	MAC	yes	yes	55
Macedonia	MKD	yes	no	0
Madagascar	MDG	yes	no	0
Malawi	MWI	yes	no	0
Malaysia	MYS	yes	yes	7
Maldives	MDV	yes	no	0
Mali	MLI	yes	no	0
Malta	MLT	yes	no	0
Marshall Islands	MHL	yes	no	0
Martinique	MTQ	yes	no	0
Mauritania	MRT	yes	no	0
Mauritius	MUS	yes	yes	99
Mayotte	MYT	yes	no	0
Mexico	MEX	yes	yes	66
Micronesia	FSM	yes	no	0
Moldova	MDA	yes	no	0
Monaco	MCO	yes	no	0
Mongolia	MNG	yes	no	0
Montenegro	MNE	yes	no	0
Montserrat	MSR	yes	no	0
Morocco	MAR	yes	yes	10
Mozambique	MOZ	yes	no	0
Myanmar	MMR	yes	no	0
Namibia	NAM	yes	yes	164
Nauru	NRU	yes	no	0
Nepal	NPL	yes	yes	1
Netherlands	NLD	yes	yes	16
New Caledonia	NCL	yes	no	0
New Zealand	NZL	yes	yes	1
Nicaragua	NIC	yes	yes	43
Niger	NER	yes	yes	3
Nigeria	NGA	yes	yes	3
Niue	NIU	yes	no	0
Norfolk Island	NFK	yes	no	0
Northern Mariana Islands	MNP	no	no	0
Norway	NOR	yes	yes	23
Oman	OMN	yes	yes	12
Pakistan	PAK	yes	yes	6
Palau	PLW	yes	no	0
Palestine	PS	no	yes	4,292
Panama	PAN	yes	yes	295
Papua New Guinea	PNG	yes	no	0
Paraguay	PRY	yes	yes	3
Peru	PER	yes	yes	1
Philippines	PHL	yes	yes	4
Pitcairn	TPC	yes	yes	3
Poland	POL	yes	yes	31
Portugal	PRT	yes	no	0
Puerto Rico*	PRI	no*	yes	13
Qatar	QAT	yes	yes	7
Réunion	REU	yes	no	0
Romania	ROU	yes	yes	41
Russia	RUS	yes	yes	13
Rwanda	RWA	no	no	0
Saint Barthélemy	BLM	no	no	0
Tristan da Cunha	SH	no	yes	134
Saint Kitts and Nevis	KNA	no	no	0
Saint Lucia	LCA	yes	yes	4
Saint Martin	MAF	no	no	0
Saint Pierre and Miquelon	SPM	no	no	0
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	VCT	no	no	0
Samoa	WSM	yes	no	0
San Marino	SMR	yes	no	0
São Tomé and Príncipe	STP	yes	yes	1
Saudi Arabia	SAU	yes	yes	58
Senegal	SEN	yes	yes	3
Serbia	SRB	yes	yes	18
Seychelles	SYC	yes	yes	3
Sierra Leone	SLE	yes	yes	11
Singapore	SGP	yes	yes	24
Sint Maarten	SXM	yes	no	0
Slovakia	SVK	yes	no	0
Slovenia	SVN	yes	yes	3
Solomon Islands	SLB	yes	no	0
Somalia	SOM	yes	yes	4
South Africa	ZAF	yes	yes	1
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	SGS	no	no	0
South Sudan	SSD	no	yes	2
Spain	ESP	yes	yes	37
Sri Lanka	LKA	yes	yes	4
Sudan	SDN	yes	yes	1
Suriname	SUR	yes	yes	288
Jan Mayen	SJM	yes	no	0
Sweden	SWE	yes	yes	1
Switzerland	CHE	yes	yes	32
Syria	SYR	yes	no	0
Taiwan	TWN	yes	yes	44
Tajikistan	TJK	yes	no	0
Tanzania	TZ	yes	yes	4
Thailand	THA	yes	yes	227
East Timor	TLS	yes	yes	32
Togo	TGO	yes	no	0
Tokelau	TKL	yes	no	0
Tonga	TON	yes	yes	20
Trinidad and Tobago	TTO	yes	no	0
Tunisia	TUN	yes	yes	14
Turkey	TUR	yes	yes	56
Turkmenistan	TKM	yes	no	0
Turks and Caicos Islands	TCA	yes	no	0
Tuvalu	TUV	yes	no	0
Uganda	UGA	yes	yes	8
Ukraine	UKR	yes	yes	3
United Arab Emirates	ARE	yes	yes	195
United Kingdom	UK	yes	yes	4
United States Minor Outlying Islands*	UMI	no*	yes	3
United States*	USA	no*	yes	23,676
Uruguay	URY	yes	yes	1
Uzbekistan	UZB	yes	yes	2
Vanuatu	VUT	yes	no	0
Venezuela	VEN	yes	yes	7
Vietnam	VNM	yes	yes	16
British Virgin Islands	VGB	yes	no	0
United States Virgin Islands*	VIR	no*	yes	26,196
Wallis and Futuna	WLF	yes	no	0
Western Sahara	ESH	yes	yes	4
Yemen	YEM	yes	no	0
Zambia	ZMB	yes	yes	1
Zimbabwe	ZWE	yes	yes	1

The previous post in this series is here.