17 DEAD FROM HOGS IN SW CHINA

What the heck is up with this? "Mysterious disease kills 17 in southwest China" says this Reuters story: "Authorities in southwest China are investigating a mysterious disease that has killed 17 farm workers and left 41 others ill after they handled sick or dead livestock, state media said on Monday." But local authorities and the WHO are pooh-poohing the concept that this could be bird- or swine-flu related. "The deaths were probably caused by a bacteria that spreads among pigs, the state-run China Daily quoted Zeng Huajin, a senior official with the Sichuan provincial health department, as saying." I sure wish I could trust the state-run China Daily any more than I trust the USDA...