TERROR ALERT

At first glance, this meatingplace.com [no link - password-protected, dontchaknow] news item looks even worse than it is, thanks to the inept syntax of meatingplacer Brigette Gaucher. It seems that residents of Iowa are now at risk for a somteimes fatal flu that passes from hogs to chickens to people because of factory farm practices. Gaucher's version of the story notes that "there are instances where the viruses trade genes as they are passed to hogs that people cannot fight off." Hogs that people cannot fight off? What, don't they have any 2-by-4s?
While investigating that question I happened across a more disturbing fact, namely that Salmonella is now spreading person to person. Well, at least salmonella's something you CAN fight off - by cooking it, right? Not so fast, buster: Even Cooked Sausages Can Harbor Salmonella, says this report. Is it just me, or is this kinda scary - an invisible, potentially fatal disease that can pass from person to person - and that you can't kill without extreme measures? That's worse that invincible hogs!