MEAT DIRTYDISEASEDDANGEROUS Almost all UK food poisoning is caused by meat and animal products. Every year, it makes millions ill and kills hundreds...
The drugs don’t work – at least not for this little piglet, who died on the farm and never made it to anyone’s plate. Of those who are eaten – 25 per cent carry salmonella.
There’s a long list of infections passed to humans from animals, including -
Deadly epidemics such as bird flu, BSE, swine fever and foot-and-mouth are spread by the global trade in meat and livestock. New diseases are appearing so what will hit us next, nobody knows.
Salmonella Sickens 500,000 and kills hundreds. Carried by chickens, pigs and eggs.
Dirty death
E Coli 0157 Can kill and the old and young are most at risk – the leading cause of kidney failure in children. Found in cows’ guts and spread to meat at slaughter.
After slaughter, intestinal contents and faeces spill out, infecting meat. Equipment, water and workers spread the infection. Animals’ feet, testicles, anuses and other bits are ground up for meat products eaten by millions.
Dirty farms
Campylobacter No 1 food poisoning bug, killing up to100 people every year. BSE/CJD Hundreds of ‘mad cow’ cases each still occurring every year. No one knows how many people are infected. No cure. Superbugs Factory farming has helped create these deadly bacteria which resist treatment with antibiotics.
Dirty shelves Only a half of the surfaces used by butchers for cooked meats are officially classified as clean. Bacterial counts are too high and there is “considerable potential for crosscontamination” in many shops.
Dirty Plates The squalor of modern farming and slaughter lies behind most pieces of meat that end up on someone’s plate. Diseases are mutating and changing because of farming practices, new diseases are appearing and the potential for catastrophe is increasing, as BSE proved. The drugs that have protected humans in the past are becoming ineffective. No one can predict what will happen next. It’s a lottery!
Dirt by design Chickens for meat are crammed 30,000 or more to a single, windowless shed and stand in their own faeces. Disease is inevitable and regular drug use doesn’t stop 100,000 birds dying every day. One half of those eaten carry campylobacter. Pigs suffer from pneumonia, meningitis, dysentery, stomach ulcers and other illnesses. Most meat pigs are kept in filthy, intensive farms and given drugs almost daily – but still one in ten piglets dies within a month of birth. A quarter of pig carcases carry salmonella. Sheep endure fly-strike (flesh-eating maggots), foot rot, pneumonia and intestinal parasites. Clostridium perfringens – a bug poisoning 50,000 plus people a year – is picked up from infected soil. Cattle are ravaged by pneumonia, tuberculosis, parasites, infected lesions on their feet and diarrhoea. They are the main source of E. Coli 0157, the ‘hamburger bug’. Fish – all fish - are contaminated by some of the most deadly poisons known - mercury, dioxins and PCBs. Farmed fish, especially salmon, can be amongst the most contaminated. Overcrowding leads to regular drug and pesticide use.
What You Can Do Don’t Eat Dirty Meat - Go Vegetarian! All meat contributes to heart disease, strokes, high blood pressure, some cancers and a string of other diseases. The dirt on meat brings additional dangers. Livestock rearing causes environmental destruction, contributes to global hunger and inflicts immense suffering on billions of animals worldwide. The solution is in our own hands! Send off now for your free It’s Time To Go Veggie magazine. To find out more about Dirty Meat, visit Viva!’s website www.viva.org.uk. To support us or donate to our campaigns, contact Viva! at: Viva! 8 York Court, Wilder Street, Bristol BS2 8QH. T 0117 944 1000; E info@viva.org
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