Food industry's role in Influenza spread

On:*Davis, M. (2005). “The Triangle of Doom,” in The Monster at our Door: The Global Threat of
Avian Flu. Pp. 81-96.
*Davis, M. (2009). “The swine flue crisis lays bare the meat industry’s monstrous power.” The
Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/27/swine-flu-mexico-health

While swine flu is currently of societal concern and significance, these excerpts address the food production industry's role in the various influenza outbreaks throughout the past. Many outbreaks are traced back to animals (poultry, swine, etc.) from industrialized producers where they are easy targets for viral strains to mutate and replicate quickly within close confinement situations. Viruses are further spread by transport of live animals to surrounding areas or distant locations. In "The Monster at our Door", Mike Davis mentions many influenza pandemics and epidemics including a 2002 "particularly virulent strain" (92) OF H6N2 poultry virus that popped up on a farm in San Diego, CA and quickly spread to the surrounding area, creating the "Triangle of Doom" (92) in the Turlock region of the Central Valley where birds could not enter without becoming infected by the virus. This epidemic was particularly problematic because the knowledge of the outbreak was "kept quiet by 'corporate decision-makers who feared that consumer demand would plummet if the public knew they were buying infected meat and eggs'" (92). The diagnosis was also kept from neighboring farms and even the state, preventing any measures that could have been taken against the spread of the virus. This problem of corporate control is not uncommon in the food industry. How can we make it more appealing to large companies to immediately report outbreaks (and for that matter implement viable health regulations) in the interest of public health to prevent the possibility of a pandemic, instead of making choices based on corporate profit? Also, a problem raised in "The swine flu crisis lays bare the meat industry's monstrous power" by Mike Davis is the lack of a functional pandemic warning system. Why does such a warning system "not exist" according to Davis, and what can be done to improve? Also, what can be done so that countries such as Mexico who "lack both capacity and political will to monitor livestock diseases" (Davis) and are susceptible to viral outbreaks, have more acess to control mechanisms for livestock disease?