Human Remains From British Columbia Pig Farm May Have Reached Food Supply

[Jenya]

Human Remains From British Columbia Pig Farm May Have Reached Food Supply

CANADIAN PRESS

Friday March 12, 2004

VANCOUVER, BC— Human DNA may have been in meat processed for human consumption at a pig farm at the centre of the investigation into Vancouver's missing women, B.C.'s provincial health officer confirmed Friday.

"We can't rule out the possibility of cross-contamination," Dr. Perry Kendall said.

When asked if cross-contamination meant human remains found their way into meat processed at the infamous farm, Kendall said:

"It's very disturbing to think about, but there's that possibility of some cross-contamination. But the degree of it or when or how much we really don't know.

"I think if we could rule it out, we definitely would like to."

Dr. Kendall stressed none of the meat would have been sold in stores or been distributed widely. However, meat from the farm was given to friends and associates of owner Robert Pickton.

Mr. Pickton, 54, faces 15 counts of first-degree murder in the disappearance of women from Vancouver's seedy Downtown Eastside.

Police have said they have found human remains and other DNA samples at the farm Mr. Pickton owned with his brother and sister near Port Coquitlam, just east of Vancouver.

However, Cpl. Cate Galliford, spokeswoman for the RCMP and Vancouver Police joint task force into the missing women case, refused to use the word remains when speaking of the potentially contaminated meat.

Instead, she said the meat may have been contaminated with human DNA.

Mr. Kendall has asked anyone who may still have frozen pork products from Mr. Pickton's farm to return them to police.

The latest news was yet another devastating blow for relatives of the victims.

Lynn Frey, who was told earlier this year that her daughter Marnie's DNA had been found at the farm, was appalled.

"It's disgusting," she said. "It's absolutely insane. How many people have eaten something from that farm?

"Even if you did get a pig from that farm seven years ago, you think it's going to still be in your freezer?"

And Ms. Frey added, all the police have indicated they've found of her daughter is DNA.

"Where the heck's the rest of her body?"

The investigation into whether meat from the Pickton pig farm was contaminated began last Friday.

Cpl. Galliford said police contacted the B.C. Centre for Disease Control after discovering that "the circle of people who may have received meat was somewhat larger than we originally anticipated."

Dr. David Patrick, director of Communicable Disease Epidemiology, said officials at his facility were asked if they would be able to "do some testing for some human pathogens in some product."

Dr. Patrick wouldn't elaborate, although he said the centre's HIV group was called in February and was asked hypothetical questions about risks of whether HIV could be transmitted in contaminated meat.

"But there was no indication that it was a real concern," Dr. Patrick said. "And we get asked at this place hypothetical concerns left, right and centre."

On Monday, the RCMP asked Health Canada to conduct a public-health risk assessment.

The assessment analysed the risk of contracting infectious diseases such as hepatitis B and C, HIV, Creutzfelt-Jakob disease, tuberculosis and other agents through "consumption of specific meat products," said a statement issued by Health Canada.

The assessment concluded there is a low risk of anyone contracting hepatitis B and an even lower risk of contracting hepatitis C or HIV.

The risk is even lower if the meat was cooked properly, said the statement.

Mr. Kendall said the RCMP has samples of meat from the farm.

"We have reason to believe that there is a strong possibility that some of the product from the Pickton farms — and how much the RCMP do not know — may still be sitting in some people's freezer in the Lower Mainland."

Mr. Kendall said Mr. Pickton apparently had a habit of slaughtering pigs, wrapping up the meat and distributing it to associates and friends. The unlicensed slaughter facility was very unsanitary, he said.

Mr. Kendall and the police acknowledged the pain the meat alert could have to the families of the missing women.

However, Mr. Kendall said under the circumstances, he has an obligation to the public under the Health Act to ensure those products are not consumed.

"This is not a pleasant task," he said.

"I am very sensitive to the issues and very sensitive to the concern it will raise in people's mind but I felt from an ethical and health standpoint ... we had to communicate this issue."

Dr. Galliford opened the police news conference with an apology to the families, saying investigators had tried to contact them about this latest development but the news leaked to the media.

Marilyn Kraft, whose daughter Cynthia Feliks is among the missing, was angry that police made the news public Friday.

"It's sickening," she said from Calgary. "Why have they waited so long? They knew last year some of that could be contaminated.

"All they're going to do is create panic. It's too damned late to do something."

Mr. Pickton is not expected to go to trial until late this year or early in 2005.

Police executed a raid on the Pickton farm Feb. 6, 2002.

More than 60 women from Vancouver's gritty Downtown Eastside have disappeared since the 1980s. Most were sex-trade workers and drug addicts.

Investigators wrapped up a mass excavation and search of the property just east of Vancouver last November.

The charges against Mr. Pickton so far are four more than the number admitted to by Canada's most notorious serial killer, Clifford Robert Olson.

Mr. Pickton was not associated with the B.C. Hog Marketing Commission and B.C. Pork Producers Association, said Clarence Jensen, a spokesman for the groups.

"None of the processors we sell farmers' hogs through have dealt with this individual," he said.

While Mr. Pickton may have bought pigs at auction, "we don't know what he did with it," Mr. Jensen said.

"Obviously they're trying to examine what they think is evidence and not giving a hoot about the industry."

[Rhiannon]

I think I'm just going to start growing my own food.




Vote for me in the second primary!

[TJL]

I think I'll skip the sausage next time I'm having a grand slam at Denny's.

[PZelda]

I heard about that. Luckily, I don't eat pork.

[James"Thunder"Early]

Originally posted by Miss Vicki
I heard about that. Luckily, I don't eat pork.

Neither do I!

[Jenya]

Originally posted by Miss Vicki
I heard about that. Luckily, I don't eat pork.

But do you like to eat bacon?

[PZelda]

Originally posted by Jenya
But do you like to eat bacon?

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWW NO! I HATE bacon with a passion! Every time I smell it frying, I want to throw up.

Next to organ meat, bacon is the nastiest thing ever. *shudder*

[Cashodeen]

Ah, it feels good not to be a pork eater. I see it mentioned Creutzfelt-Jakob disease--I thought of that right away when I first saw the article. GEEZ, that is a horrible story.

[I am Him]

On a related note, a BC man came home late for dinner and his wife gave him a cold shoulder.

Many BC resturants are now offering Pizza with everybody on it.

"Excuse me waiter, I'd like a cup of Joe"

[TJL]

Good ones.

[Georgia's on my Mind]

Originally posted by Miss Vicki
EWWWWWWWWWWWWWW NO! I HATE bacon with a passion! Every time I smell it frying, I want to throw up.

Next to organ meat, bacon is the nastiest thing ever. *shudder*

bacon is so good. yummm

[PZelda]

Originally posted by Georgia's on my Mind
bacon is so good. yummm

[Kristina]

I'm a vegetarian so I really don't care.

[Pitooey]

Pretty soon I'm going to be a vegetarian...

[Pitooey]

Originally posted by TJL
I think I'll skip the sausage next time I'm having a grand slam at Denny's.

Waiter........... can I have green eggs and Sam........