Swine Flu Fears Spark Mass Slaughter of Pigs in Egypt

Scores of them blocked the streets and stoned the vehicles of Health Ministry workers as they arrived to carry out the government's order at pig farms on the outskirts of Cario this afternoon.

“Our pigs are healthy. They are our capital and they have no diseases,” said Adel Ishak, who feeds his pigs from the rubbish he collects in Manshiet Nasser, northeast of Cairo.

"We remind Hosni Mubarak that we are all Egyptians. Where does he want us to go?” added 46-year-old Gergis Faris, another pig farmer. “We are uneducated people, just living day by day and trying to make a living, and now if our pigs are taken from us without compensation, how are we supposed to live?”

"It's a real mistake. There is no reason to do that. It's not a swine influenza, it's a human influenza," said Domenech, adding the FAO had been trying to reach Egyptian officials but has so far been unsuccessful. "There is certainly no support from FAO for that decision."

But since no pigs have been found with the disease, groups like the FAO and the Paris-based Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) are lobbying for a name change.

"This is one of the results of this strange way of defining the disease as a swine influenza. That's why the FAO and OIE are fighting to get that name changed because it's a totally undue focus on swine," he said.