Egypt is mainly a Muslim country where most of the population does not eat pork, but around 10 million Christian Egyptians do.
For most countries, swine flu is a health issue but in Egypt it has turned out to be more than that, a sectarian issue ready to erupt, an environmental threat and a matter of state security.
Egypt is mainly a Muslim country where the majority of population does not eat pork, but around 10 million Christian Egyptians do and are also the main pig breeders. Garbage collection is also mostly done by the people of the community.
They have appealed to the Pope Shenouda II (Coptic Pope of Alexandaria) to interfere saying that they were subjected to a hate campaign based on "sectarian discrimination" under the cover of health.
The Pope refused to interfere saying it was up to officials to decide what is to be done to protect all.
Pigs in Egypt are bred in garbage dumps and feed on the organic part of the garbage. These "pig-farms" lack any type of supervision and was marked by health experts as "one of the most suitable media for the H1N1 virus to develop" since the pigs exist with humans and birds in the same area.
Another related factor was the high incidence of avian flu infections, 26 since the start of the year.
This prompted the Egyptian government to take strict prophylactic measures against swine flu including killing more than 350,000 pigs.
The garbage collectors demonstrated and tried to keep the officials from entering their farms but were managed by security officials who arrested more than 20 people.
The FAO, affiliated with the UN, also criticised Egypt's decision and said it was a "real mistake". But their criticism was refused by the Egyptian minister of agriculture and land reclamation, Amin Abaza, who said that the accusations were bare of truth.
He added that the health conditions at current pig farms are unbearable since the areas are originally dumps, promising to establish alternative farms in line with international environmental standards in the desert, outside the cities and residential areas, after controlling the virus.
This viewpoint was echoed by Egyptian state minister for environmental affairs Maged George who warned that the current pig farming conditions could cause diseases.
The media started to question whether killing the pigs was done for environmental reasons, or to avoid the swine flu.
The speaker of the Upper House of Parliament ruled out both probabilities saying it was a matter of state security as a government report placed at 18 million the expected death toll if swine flu turns into an epidemic in Egypt, 22 per cent of the total population.
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