Al-Masry Al-Youm has monitored the measures carried out by veterinary, health and security services as well as the localities to cull pigs through chemicals made up of factory wastes and to bury them in Abou Zabal by using quicklime.
The journey starts from the barns in El-Khosous, where pigs are taken to large vans amid barn owners' cries and pleas. After three hours, the pigs arrive at the place where they will be executed after being moved to lorries.
The first disturbing pictures are shot when the pigs are transferred to the lorries. The rear doors of the vans open and the pigs are pushed with sticks to the crane of the lorry, while some workers take some pigs and dump them one over the other. The animals scream as they are squashed into the vehicle and cannot breathe.
When a supervisor sees some workers distracted by our shooting, he says to them: "Come on, guys, keep working."
When the lorry is filled with 400 pigs on average, it sets off for the burial ground in Abou Zabal. Once there, something like soft sand is sprinkled on the pigs inside the lorry. This material is made up of factory wastes. The pigs start to scream because of the searing pain until they die some 30 or 40 minutes later.
After that, they are dumped into the pit. Some of them are swollen, others have their bowels turn apart. The bodies are covered with quicklime before the pit they are dumped into is covered once more with sand.
Al-Masry Al-Youm readers can view the full video by clicking on these two links: www.youtube.com/almasryalyoum and www.vimeo.com/almasryalyoum.
Meanwhile, a delegation of the Egyptian Ministry of Health is due to travel to Geneva (Switzerland) to take part in the 62nd session of the World Health Organization (WHO) General Assembly, which is due to start on Monday.
Up to now, it is not clear whether Dr. Hatem El-Gabaly, Minister of Health, will participate or not.
Sources have revealed that the Egyptian delegation will demand a review of the procedures followed to warn of the epidemic. This follows El-Gabaly's accusations to the WHO of causing panic worldwide.
Meanwhile, the number of infections worldwide reached a record high yesterday, as 1,000 new cases were confirmed in one single day, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 7,520.
