growth of pork production in North Carolina in the 1990s ?
RESPONSE: Two medical doctors with the Division of Infectious Diseases at Duke University Medical Center, recently published a review of currently available information of hog-related infections in North Carolina. All available data suggest that the risk of infectious diseases posed by the state hog industry, while potentially important, is limited primarily to pork production employees who may come into contact with brucella, Erysipelothrix, or S. suis. The recent development of corporate hog farming in North Carolina has greatly increased the confined swine herd. This has actually reduced the risk of hog (and presumably human) infection by T. gondii and T. spiralis. Several hog-associated infections (toxoplasmosis, trichinosis) are less common in pigs raised in total confinement, but other human pathogens such as salmonella are still common in swine raised in modern facilities. Available epidemiological data do not suggest any increase in the incidence of diseases caused by waterborn
