May 12th, 2020- Reports continue to come in regarding cases of COVID-19 among workers in meat processing plants.
In Illinois, the Hormel processing facility was shut down by health officials who linked 24 positive cases to the plant. In Chicago, 21 cases have been confirmed among workers at the Rose processing plant in the South Side.
All of which have consumers concerned that the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 could be transmitted from livestock to the humans who work with the animals and/or their meat and transmitted from workers to meat and from the meat the people who consume it.
But current research shows those fears are unfounded, said Tasha Bunting, associate director for commodities and livestock programs at the Illinois Farm Bureau.
“What the experts are telling our producers is that the likelihood of even an infected person sharing the virus is very, very low,” she told Illinois News Network in a telephone interview. “So the likelihood we would have a large outbreak of COVID-19 amongst our livestock is not something they think is a serious threat.”
Authorities have found some indications that wild animals, such as bats, can harbor the COVID-19 virus and perhaps pass it to humans, but that does not apply to livestock, which are susceptible to different strains. And while a few pets have been found to have low levels of the virus, possibly transmitted from owners, the process does not work in reverse — non-wild animals do not transmit to humans.
The workers that are testing positive are doing so not because of their proximity to animals, she said, but “definitely because of the communicable disease between other employees or from other community members that they’ve been exposed to.”
Bunting also said that there is no research indicating that food can transmit novel coronavirus.
“So all of the eggs, meat, milk – all of that is safe and a wholesome product.”
