Where's the contradiction in stating some information that I learned at a conference, and in stating some other information that I'm pretty sure is accurate while also conveying that I'm not expert enough on the subject to state it as unequivocal fact? The second statement you quoted was the focus of the seminar I attended, and I stand by the accuracy of it. The first is just my general accumulated knowledge of the various virus families. I've had more education on this than the average Joe (virology and epidemiology courses at the graduate level) but less than a virologist or epidemiologist would, so I'm not trying to assert a level of expertise that's 'above my pay grade'.

CStanley one.

This is something I know a bit about, having attended a seminar by a CDC vet who explained (frighteningly, I might add) that global demographic shifts toward the keeping of livestock in highly populated areas is virtually guaranteeing that we'll have one of these pandemics in the near future.

Could you please reconcile these two different CStanleys for me?

I am pretty sure there's never been a flu virus confirmed to be spread by insect vector (that's not the way this family of viruses operates) and it's not shed in active form in the feces, so the premise of that is based on complete nonsense.

And actually, theoretically factory farming should be epidemiologically better than small family farms in highly populated areas. If large livestock groups could be raised remotely from people, we'd have far less risk of genetic crossover between porcine and avian viruses with human ones, which is what happens with these highly virulent and novel flu viruses.

This is something I know a bit about, having attended a seminar by a CDC vet who explained (frighteningly, I might add) that global demographic shifts toward the keeping of livestock in highly populated areas is virtually guaranteeing that we'll have one of these pandemics in the near future.

You are missing the point.

The outbreak of swine flu is a bad thing, so it is the fault of the U.S.

Didn’t you get the memo?