Farmers riot over pig cull
From correspondents in Cairo, Egypt
May 03, 2009 09:39pm
EGYPTIAN riot police clashed today with Cairo pig farmers trying to prevent their animals being taken away for slaughter.
Between 300 and 400 residents of a district of Cairo threw stones and bottles at police as they arrived to take away their animals for a cull.
Anti-riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, most of them youths.
Egypt began a mass cull of the nation's 250,000 pigs yesterday, despite the World Health Organisation saying there was no evidence the animals were transmitting swine flu to humans.
Officials are calling the slaughter a general health measure.
No cases of swine flu, or influenza A(H1N1), have been reported in the Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world.
Egypt's pigs mostly belong to and are eaten by members of Egypt's Coptic Christian minority and are reared by rubbish collectors in Cairo's shantytowns.
The rubbish collectors, who used the pigs to dispose of organic waste and sell off some animals from their herds once a year, say the cull will affect their business and wipe out a crucial source of income.
Although no cases of swine flu have been reported in Egypt, the country has been battling an outbreak of bird flu.
Twenty-six people have died in Egypt from the H5N1 strain of bird flu since it was first identified in early 2006 and the country has had an increase in cases over the past two months.
The World Health Organisation called in March for an investigation into why many of the victims have been young children.
Health ministry spokesman Abdurrahman Shahin last month described the bird flu situation as "worrying''.
From correspondents in Cairo, Egypt
May 03, 2009 09:39pm
EGYPTIAN riot police clashed today with Cairo pig farmers trying to prevent their animals being taken away for slaughter.
Between 300 and 400 residents of a district of Cairo threw stones and bottles at police as they arrived to take away their animals for a cull.
Anti-riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, most of them youths.
Egypt began a mass cull of the nation's 250,000 pigs yesterday, despite the World Health Organisation saying there was no evidence the animals were transmitting swine flu to humans.
Officials are calling the slaughter a general health measure.
No cases of swine flu, or influenza A(H1N1), have been reported in the Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world.
Egypt's pigs mostly belong to and are eaten by members of Egypt's Coptic Christian minority and are reared by rubbish collectors in Cairo's shantytowns.
The rubbish collectors, who used the pigs to dispose of organic waste and sell off some animals from their herds once a year, say the cull will affect their business and wipe out a crucial source of income.
Although no cases of swine flu have been reported in Egypt, the country has been battling an outbreak of bird flu.
Twenty-six people have died in Egypt from the H5N1 strain of bird flu since it was first identified in early 2006 and the country has had an increase in cases over the past two months.
The World Health Organisation called in March for an investigation into why many of the victims have been young children.
Health ministry spokesman Abdurrahman Shahin last month described the bird flu situation as "worrying''.
