Dairy farm blamed for workers' infections
By Jane Feng |
October 4, 2011, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AROUND 30 workers and 2,000 cows on a dairy farm in Qiqihar City in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province are said to be suffering from a bacterial infection.
The workers infected with the brucella bacteria, which causes brucellosis, blame the farm, a unit of China's Feihe Dairy company, for delaying treatment for both themselves and the animals.
The bacteria may result in headaches, sore joints and fatigue. Humans are infected through contact with livestock or by drinking unpasteurized milk.
"When I started working in the firm, senior workers said that cows here were carrying brucella and asked me to be careful," a worker surnamed He told China National Radio on Sunday. He was found to have become infected in March after working on the farm for four months. "The company only gave me some oral medication and I didn't bother to care too much."
He said his infection had resulted in a chronic infectious disease because the company failed to offer enough medical treatment at first.
Experts say that more than 90 percent of human cases can be cured if treated properly and in time. The infection spreads slowly among cows and the disease can be controlled if infected animals are killed and buried, they say.
'False accusation'
However, a worker surnamed Yang said that 80 percent of the thousands of cows at the farm were infected, and the company had been giving them vaccinations rather than having them destroyed.
"The vaccine can keep the ill cow producing a normal amount of milk for one year," he said. "The milk is sent to a production line to make milk powder."
Feihe Dairy denied the company was using sick cows to produce milk. It said workers had made a false accusation amid labor disputes.
He Fengtong, director of the occupational disease division of Beijing City's Chaoyang Hospital, told CNR that people who were diagnosed with the disease through occupational exposure can ask companies to offer subsidies and pay for medical treatment.
A worker surnamed Wang said the company had been delaying implementing requests for a disease evaluation for two months. "We asked to be sent to the hospital when going through the procedures, but the company declined."
The workers infected with the brucella bacteria, which causes brucellosis, blame the farm, a unit of China's Feihe Dairy company, for delaying treatment for both themselves and the animals.
The bacteria may result in headaches, sore joints and fatigue. Humans are infected through contact with livestock or by drinking unpasteurized milk.
"When I started working in the firm, senior workers said that cows here were carrying brucella and asked me to be careful," a worker surnamed He told China National Radio on Sunday. He was found to have become infected in March after working on the farm for four months. "The company only gave me some oral medication and I didn't bother to care too much."
He said his infection had resulted in a chronic infectious disease because the company failed to offer enough medical treatment at first.
Experts say that more than 90 percent of human cases can be cured if treated properly and in time. The infection spreads slowly among cows and the disease can be controlled if infected animals are killed and buried, they say.
'False accusation'
However, a worker surnamed Yang said that 80 percent of the thousands of cows at the farm were infected, and the company had been giving them vaccinations rather than having them destroyed.
"The vaccine can keep the ill cow producing a normal amount of milk for one year," he said. "The milk is sent to a production line to make milk powder."
Feihe Dairy denied the company was using sick cows to produce milk. It said workers had made a false accusation amid labor disputes.
He Fengtong, director of the occupational disease division of Beijing City's Chaoyang Hospital, told CNR that people who were diagnosed with the disease through occupational exposure can ask companies to offer subsidies and pay for medical treatment.
A worker surnamed Wang said the company had been delaying implementing requests for a disease evaluation for two months. "We asked to be sent to the hospital when going through the procedures, but the company declined."
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