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04/30/2009: "Egyptian Christians riot after swine flu cull"
Egyptian leaders ordered the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of pigs today to help protect against swine flu, prompting angry protests from the poor Christian farmers who feed their animals with a country's food scraps. The decision was also criticised as a "real mistake" by a senior UN food expert.
The Arab world's most populous nation has been been badly hit by the H5N1 bird flu virus in recent years and the move to cull up to 400,000 pigs - seen by Muslims as unclean animals - was designed to calm fears of an impending pandemic
The World Health Organisation has repeatedly said, however, that the newly mutated H1N1 virus is not found in pigs - although the animals can be the vessels for the "genetic reassortment" that produces new strains - and that pork meat is safe to eat.
[ This is really about persecuting the Christians to a large extent. But an interesting consideration is that perhaps the swine flue willl prove to be most dangerous for cultures that traditionally avoid pigs, such as Moslems or Jews, while people from other cultures may have developed immunity. The world could benefit from a pandemic that would wipe out most of the population. The planet is over-crowded. ]
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article6193785.ece