Abattoirs breeding grounds for coronavirus

The coronavirus outbreak seen at Cedar Meats in Victoria has been mirrored around the world.

The coronavirus outbreak seen at Cedar Meats in Victoria has been mirrored around the world, with worrying spikes of cases emerging in abattoirs and food production factories in France, Ireland, Germany, the US and ­Britain.

Health officials in various counties are taking a close look at coronavirus outbreaks associated with abattoirs and food processing.

Three workers at the Cranswick food company in Wombwell, South Yorkshire, died from coronavirus and another four have been hospitalised, the company announced this week.

The company, which employs more than 1300 employees at Wombwell, said it had introduced extra measures to “protect both the physical and mental wellbeing of our people”.

Such is the concern in Germany that more than 20,000 meat workers in the regions of North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-­Holstein have been tested for the coronavirus.

A new law is being passed in the Bundestag to prevent subcontracting of the work to low-cost Romanian and other Eastern ­European workers who live in densely packed conditions in caravans and temporary cabins.

Clusters of coronavirus have ­already broken out in the Westfleisch slaughterhouse in Lower Saxony, with 151 of 200 workers testing positive and 13 workers hospitalised, following on from outbreaks in meat factories in Coesfeld where 260 workers have been infected, as well as cases in West Fleisch, Oer-Erkenschwick and Bad Bramstedt.

Another outbreak at Muller Fleisch in Baden Wuttermberg, has seen more than a quarter of its 1100 employees testing positive over the past month, although around 150 are already back at work.

German Labour Minister Hubertus Heil has demanded stricter oversight and heavy fines for what he said was a “shady’’ meat slaughtering industry often criticised for cramped communal living and ­exploitation of its workers.

“These grievances are a problem even without a pandemic, but during the coronavirus crisis they have become a dangerous health risk for employees and the entire population,” Mr Heil said.

While scientists have yet to pinpoint the particular conditions that are fuelling the meat processing spikes, officials are looking at unavoidable close working conditions on production lines and the very cold indoor conditions, often with intense air-conditioning to protect the meat, which allows the virus to flourish.

As well, abattoir and poultry workers are labouring and breathing more heavily than office workers, which could spread the virus more easily to those ­nearby, akin to other known super-spreader outbreaks already seen in nightclubs, apres-ski bars and among excited football crowds.

The low socioeconomic conditions of workers, living and working so closely with many others and travelling to work often in company-provided buses is also being looked at, as well as any reluctance to report or quarantine at the first sign of illness out of fear of losing wages.

British MP Geraint Davies said plant workers in England and Wales were more than five times more likely to die from coronavirus than an average worker according to data from the Office for National Statistics.

This week in France, 100 workers out of the workforce of 818 at an abattoir in Cotes d’Armor, ­Brittany, and dozens at the ­Tradival abattoir in Loiret in the Loire Valley have tested positive for the virus.

Abattoir outbreaks have also been reported in ­Ireland.