One major concern is that an infected human working at or visiting a feed manufacturing facility could cough or sneeze over a batch of feed and the contamination could infect multiple herds this can be especially dangerous since modern pig farms keep the animals in VERY close quarters, Potentially one infected human could infect dozens of herds and tens of thousands of animals. The financial cost of treating these infected herds would be staggering.

A delegation of farmers and meat processors are petitioning to Congress for government intervention. One idea is for feed plant workers to be kept isolated from the rest of the population to prevent their getting infected and bringing the virus to work. Even if it means separating them from their families the reasoning is that the nation’s food supply needs to be protected recent salmonella out breaks have heightened this fear.

Another worry is that terrorists might use this to attack the nation’s food supply by infecting their children then sending them to schools that the children of feed plant or farm workers attend in the hope of spreading the flu though the children to their parents and then to the herds. One counter to this problem is to require all children of workers in this industry to be either home schooled or take classes over the Internet.