I came across something called, "Blue-eared Pig disease" (PRRS), which affects the reproductive system and causes Cyanosis of the extremities.
Cyanosis - is the appearance of a blue or purple coloration of the skin or mucous membranes due to the tissues near the skin surface having low oxygen saturation.
An outbreak of blue-eared pig disease (porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome) in four pig herds in Great Britain.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1413421
Back dated - August 15, 1992
Abstract
The clinical syndrome of a new disease of pigs in four herds in the Humberside area is described. The first signs of the disease were anorexia, lethargy and pyrexia with up to 60 per cent of the dry sows affected. These signs were followed by an increased incidence of abortions which occurred in up to 3.3 per cent of sows, premature farrowings in up to 20.6 per cent of sows and stillbirths and late mummification which affected up to 26.0 and 18.8 per cent of fetuses, respectively. Mortality in neonatal and pre-weaning pigs reached up to 88 per cent and respiratory disease of high morbidity and low mortality occurred in fattening pigs. There were infertility problems in sows, with an increase in returns to service and a failure to show oestrus after weaning or aborting. The signs of the disease in boars were anorexia and malaise. Cyanosis of the extremities affected up to 2 per cent of the animals. The outbreak lasted 11 weeks in all the herds.
Ugandans Warned Against Eating Blue Pork
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2002-05/12/content_389396.htm
KAMPALA, May 12, 2002 (Xinhuanet) -- Director of Uganda's Animal
Resources William Olaho Mukhani has warned the public against eating blue pork, the Sunday Vision newspaper reported. The warning follows the emergence of a pig abnormality, which causes the pig's flesh to turn blue.
The abnormality that has not been detected anywhere outside Uganda, has been dubbed "blue pork syndrome", the report said.
Affected pigs look healthy but when slaughtered the pork is found to be blue, especially in the fatty areas and other parts that are normally white.
The blue pork was first noticed in Masaka District, southern Uganda in 1998. Last month veterinary experts in Makerere
University warned that the "blue pork syndrome" has spread to at least eight districts in the country. The eight district that have
reported it include Kampala, Mpigi, Wakiso, Mukono, Nakasongola and Lira.
He said a team of researchers would be marshaled from various organizations including Makerere University, the National
Agricultural Research Organization and some international institutions to study the "blue pork syndrome". So far, scientific efforts to establish what is causing the blue color in pork have been fruitless. Tests at the Makerere University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and a veterinary reference laboratory in Pirbright, UK, could not establish the cause of the syndrome, the report said.
Virus Spreading Alarm and Pig Disease in China
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/business/worldbusiness/16pigs.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
CHENGDU, China, Aug. 9, 2007 — A highly infectious swine virus is sweeping China’s pig population, driving up pork prices and creating fears of a global pandemic among domesticated pigs.
But, some scientists say there is no truly effective vaccine against blue-ear pig disease (which is also known as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome); other experts say they are not even certain that the blue-ear virus is the one that is spreading.
Scientists who track blue-ear pig disease are puzzled because the disease is generally not so deadly.
“This virus generally makes them ill but on its own it doesn’t cause a lot of deaths,” said Steven McOrist, a professor of pig medicines at the University of Nottingham in England. “The evidence they put up so far is not conclusive.”
If it is blue-ear pig disease, which has infected most parts of the world, including the United States, it may be a new and more virulent strain.
“First they refused to eat, then they got high fever,” said Zhao Yanjun, 32, who lost all but 5 of his 150 pigs. Pig farmers who did not sell watched their pigs succumb to a disease that ate away at their insides in a matter of weeks, often turning the pig’s ear blue.
Link Is Seen Between British Labs and Livestock Virus
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/world/europe/06britain.html?fta=y
LONDON, Aug. 5, 2007 — British health inspectors combed two veterinary laboratories in southern England on Sunday after it was discovered that the strain of foot-and-mouth disease at a farm four miles away was the same as the one used in the production of vaccine at the facilities.
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said that the laboratories, which house the government’s Institute of Animal Health and a private pharmaceutical company, Merial Animal Health, were a “possible” source of the virus but that a definitive conclusion had not been reached.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the strain of the virus found at the farm was used in a vaccine batch manufactured last month by Merial Animal Health.
The company is an arm of Merial Ltd., which is jointly owned by the American drug maker Merck & Company and the French company Sanofi-Aventis. Merial Animal Health announced that it was suspending production of the vaccine.
The environment department’s statement said, this strain is a 01 BFS67 like virus, isolated in the 1967 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Great Britain.”
Just speculation on my part, instead of looking at Copper Mines and Plutonium or other variables as a possible cause, could 'blue pork syndrome' and "Blue-eared Pig disease" (PRRS), possibly be a mutation via laboratories and pharmaceutical tampering of the 01 BFS67 like virus, then sent to Uganda and China as a testing ground? With it now spreading to Canada, U.K. and the U.S. in GMO feed and grains?
