plague Archives - usatoday24

While everything is getting more expensive than ever, a plague has given us something: cheaper pork

December 4, 2025 by usatoday24

A ghost haunts the markets throughout Spain and no, it is not a metaphor: MercoLleida, the main European pork market, is already registering drops of between 7 and 17% in the price of pork. It is the biggest disaster in 30 years. And the bad thing for the industry is that this is just the beginning. What is happening? We could say that the most obvious thing is that there are at least 50 wild boars killed in the Collserola mountain range. That is, without a doubt, an indicator of the intensity of the problem. African swine fever, despite not affecting humans, has mortality and morbidity levels close to 100%: “can kill all the pigs on a farm after a few days of fever, coughing and bleeding.” But, in reality, that does not explain the price drop. And then? The price of pork in Spain (and, by extension, in Europe) has collapsed due to something else: fear. Swine fever is a disease so terrible, so resistant and so difficult to eradicate that “the appearance of a single case of plague causes preventive blocking of pork exports”. There are more than 20 countries that, to begin with, they do not accept regionalization and, therefore, the veto of Spanish pork exports is en bloc and immediate. Among them are Japan or Mexico. And the truth is that the situation could be much worse if Spain and China they would not have signed the regionalization agreement just a few weeks ago. That’s the reason for the price drop: suddenly, there’s a lot of leftover pork. Europe’s farm. After all, even with ‘regionalization’ underway (the international blockade of Catalan pork, but not the rest) the tons of meat that have to find a buyer are enormous. With more than 8 million animals and nearly 3.2 billion euros in annual meat exports, Catalan farms They represent 52% of Spanish international sales. How is the price not going to collapse? And the worst, as I say, begins now. Not only because no one knows if the efforts to contain the epidemic they will be successfulbut because the impact on the industry can be devastating. It is enough to remember that Germany was the European country that produced the most pork until in 2020 an infected wild boar crossed the border with Poland and unleashed a huge national crisis that dismantled the sector. That is to say, the Spanish pig is in a critical situation; but at the consumption level it has no problem. First, because the plague does not affect humans; and second (and more important) because no Spanish farm has been affected because of the virus. And they are being reviewed one by one. A trompe l’oeil In the short term this effectively means lower prices than usual. And, in a context of general rise (with chicken in full escalation), it is good news for consumers. What we don’t know is what impact it will have in the medium and long term: if it is a temporary blip, the industry will have some margin. If not, we cannot rule out that prices will skyrocket in the future. The problem is that, as the days go by, the situation looks worse and worse. Image | Kwon Junho | Mossos In Xataka | In a country with almost as many pigs as people, the worst that can happen is that investment funds take over

Big tech companies are fleeing China like the plague. Their future depends on it

October 17, 2025 by usatoday24

The growing tension between China and the United States is causing a stampede among big technology companies. Apple already made a move at the beginning of the year and now Microsoft and Amazon follow. They are not the first companies that They move from China to manufacture in other Asian countriesbut this migration is different as they are trying to eliminate China from the entire supply chain down to the smallest component level. What is happening. They count in Nikkei Asia that Microsoft wants to manufacture most of its products outside of China and has set a limit of 2026. This movement would affect the production of Microsoft Surfaces and especially data centers, since it is a much more sensitive product. In fact, they have already managed to move a large part of the production of server components because it is a more sensitive product, but their goal is for at least 80% of the components to come from outside China. They also want to move some Xbox production out of China, although in this case they are not being as strict. Why is it important. This move by Microsoft consolidates the trend of big technology companies moving towards independent supply chains from China. It is not a question of patriotism, it is an attempt to ensure their survival and minimize risks derived from the increasingly tense trade warsuch as interruptions in supply and price increases. Besides, in the middle of the AI raceindependence becomes even more necessary. Something has changed. As we said, this is not the first time that technology companies have tried to become independent from China. The improvement in working conditions has made it not so cheap to produce there (although have found ways to retain manufacturing), so its status as the “factory of the world” has been lost in favor of other Southeast Asian countries. However, this time it is a broad movement that covers everything from assembly to materials and components such as PCBs, connectors, cables and fibers. The challenge. Moving the assembly is the easy part, but moving the entire production to the last component is a huge challenge. The date that Microsoft has set does not seem very realistic, especially considering that we are talking about a large production volume. According to Omdiadistribute about 4 million Surfaces per year. amazon. AWS is also moving towards ‘non-Chinese’ production for its AI data centers. They were considering reducing the presence of SYE, their printed circuit board supplier, but realized that it was not so easy to replace them. They are companies with which they have a relationship for decades and offer good prices, as well as quality and great production capacity. Google. Those in Mountain View are also embarking on a similar path. According to Nikkei, they are asking their suppliers to expand server production in Thailand. At the end of 2024 we learned that They planned to invest 1 billion dollars and it seems to have paid off because they have managed to double their production capacity with four new facilities. Image | Flickredited In Xataka | The problem is not that Europe has “expropriated” Nexperia from a Chinese company: it is that it approved its sale just a year ago

a plague of flies that no one can stop

October 9, 2025 by usatoday24

Not the Gaza massacre, not the increase in salaries, not the improvement of public health or the fight against corruption. A few days ago the residents of Tomiño, a town in the south of Galicia, took to the streets to protest something very different and that is not common to find in 21st century Spain: the fly pests. Tired of encountering annoying insects even in the soup (and no, it is not a figure of speech) some 300 people They gathered in the town to demand that the institutions solve a problem that they have been for years dragging “It’s horrible, really terrible,” they cry out. What has happened? That Galicia has just experienced what may have been the most peculiar manifestation so far this year. Not so much for the form as for the substance. What has brought people to the streets in Tomiño, a town in the south of the province of Pontevedra, is a plague of flies. Thousands and thousands of dipterans that sneak into businesses and homes, complicating the lives of part of the town. The rally was organized last Sunday in the center of Carregal, the most affected parish of Tomiño, and brought together around 300 residents, according to Tele Mariñas specifies. The mobilization not only served to demand solutions from the administrations. It has also helped to better understand how the plague affects the inhabitants of the area, who claim to be living a true hell. “This plague doesn’t let me eat, sleep, or anything,” he lamented a 77-year-old neighbor who has lived in the neighborhood for more than a decade. “It’s horrible, terrible.” Is it that serious? The testimonies of the inhabitants of one of the most affected areas, Amorín, in Carregal, show that the invasion of flies is much more than a simple nuisance. “It’s terrible. You kill one and three come to the funeral,” counted a few days ago The Voice of Galicia Avelina, a neighbor. People talk about flytraps that fill up shortly after hanging them, businesses “desperate” and even people who are considering throwing in the towel and selling their homes if the problem is not solved. A few months ago in Forcadela, another parish in Tomiño, the owner of a bar confessed that the plague forced her to work reduced hours and do without the terrace so as not to lose customers. “When you moved there were so many that you could grab them with your hand, you even stepped on them,” recounted the hotelier, Ana Belén, The Voice of Galicia. “The ceiling of my establishment is white and it was black.” At Sunday’s rally, the residents of Carregal took to the streets a poster which, pulling back, emphasized the same complaint: “Menu of the day: 1st, broth with flies; 2nd, chickpeas with flies, coffee with flies. Enough already.” Their discomfort is not only due to the dipteran invasion itself. It also bothers them that the problem is repeated year after year without the administrations finding a solution. “We want solutions now.” What areas does it affect? The weekend protest was organized in Carregal, Tomiño, but a few months ago They complained about the same problem in Forcadela, another neighborhood in the town. In reality, it will have caught few by surprise. In 2024 in the village they were already complaining of the same problem and there are neighbors who report that flies have been a challenge for about five years. In reality, Tomiño is not the only Galician town that has had to do with the invasion of dipterans. Almost 175 kilometers from there, in Narón (province of A Coruña) there is another parish, O Val, which has been with a challenge to simulate. “It makes you desperate,” confessed In June one of his neighbors The Confidential. In his case he has even tried to combat flies with bleach. Without much success. What is the reason? In Tomiño the problem is serious enough that some time ago the City Council commissioned a study to clarify its causes, a task that fell to a group specialized in environmental biology from the University of Vigo. Salustiano Mato, professor of Zoology, he resisted last year to talk about a “plague” of flies as such, but admits that there are “disproportionate population booms” of insects in some parts of the municipality. Its protagonist is the common fly, an insect with a fleeting life cycle, between seven and 30 daysbut which is capable of depositing about a thousand eggs during that brief period. The affected neighbors they explain that “strong pests” are suffered between spring and well into autumn, although the problem is not completely solved during the cold months. “We continue with flies because there is no more frost.” Regarding the possible causes of its uncontrolled presence in Tomiño, Mato explains that “a perfect storm” seems to have occurred, an opinion shared by Galicia Ambiental. “The combination of climatic factors, temperature and humidity could be behind everything. There is a set of environmental circumstances that favor hatching, irruption or mass reproduction,” they sentence. And how to solve it? The problem is more complex than it seems. When it comes to pointing out the causes, more factors have been pointed out, such as the use of fertilizer in crop fields, humidity (the area is near the Miño), the destruction of native forest, with the consequent loss of trees and birds that feed on insects, or the expansion of crops. A few months ago, in fact, the Tomiño City Council related the Forcadela plague with a poorly fertilized farm, in which manure supposedly accumulated on unplowed land. Things don’t seem to be clear in the offices either. Last year the local government I remembered that there is a royal decree of 2022 that establishes that the powers over the inspection and control in the care of farmland falls on the Xunta, but the municipal opposition insist in which the law obliges the City Council to “act” and remembers that it is the … Read more

While Europe was razed by black plague, an unexpected state applied epidemiological pioneer measures: Aragon

October 3, 2025 by usatoday24

The whole history of humanity changed one day of 1346 in front of the doors of the city of Caffa in the Crimean Peninsula. Between that day and the end of 1351, 70 million people died worldwide. That is, between 30% and half of the population disappeared from the surface of the earth. It is very difficult to ponder what the black plague meant. But not everywhere was the same. In the vicinity of Lake Issyk-Kul in the current Kyrguistan, Almost everyone died. In the crown of Aragon, The thing was different. Do not be misunderstood, we talk about a complex and diverse territory, the impact of black plague on the different kingdoms and counties was as terrible as anywhere; But, according to A recent study by Albert Reixach Salahe has just demonstrated that “urban governments began to try pioneer techniques that anticipated” what would later be applied in the rest of Europe. The laboratory of the continent. At first, like all, Aragonese communities resorted to religion. East of the Peninsula processions, public sentences and offerings to the saints were filled. It seems, 1384, the Municipal Council of Manresa tried to placate the “divine anger” prohibiting gambling. From whatever, it did not work. AND, According to Reixach Salathroughout the fifteenth century, the authorities began to add more concrete measures and, to put it in some way, more modern. For example, death registration systems were created (in Barcelona it was active since 1420). At the same time, Terrasa and Cervera began to apply mobility restrictions prohibiting entry to travelers who had been in locations with active cases. A lot of good ideas. Obviously, these answers were partial, clumsy, uncoordinated and reactive. A good example is that in 1458, the city ejected all the Mallorcans from its municipality. No matter that the island was one of the most controlled places in the Mediterranean. In Sóller, without going any further, there were permanent terrestrial controls for decades. However, numerous ideas were clairvoyant. We usually overcome the origin of the ‘quarantine’ to Venice or France, but (always According to Reixach Sala) We know that before that Cervera had already built preventive confinement barracks for anyone who returned to the city. In Valencia it also began to do a few years later. In the same vein, Mallorca had a kind of “Board of Health” since 1476 that introduced prevention measures, administrative regulations and generalized health measures. The grain and the straw. In 2015 Karolinska Institute of Stockholm when granted your youyou The Nobel Prize in Medicine. Many interpreted him as a prize for traditional Chinese medicine, but What they were rewarding It was a huge effort to carefully analyze each and every one of the remedies that the millenary Chinese civilization. Because, between superstition and care, there were good things: bright things. The same as in Aragon. Image | Pierart Dou Tielt, c. 1353. In Xataka | The black plague was a traumatic episode for the human being. But our immune system also improved

Football believes that a plague of injuries lives, so it has been thrown into a Spanish technology to prevent them

July 2, 2025 by usatoday24

Infrared thermography applied to professional sport is gaining ground as a very useful tool for injury prevention and the optimization of the performance of the players themselves and athletes. Themohumana Spanish company specialized in this technology, has made elite teams such as Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid or Girona, among many others, incorporate their systems into their physical preparation routines. What is this technology and how. Thermohuman is a system that combines thermographic cameras with artificial intelligence software to analyze the body temperature of athletes. Although there is a lot of chicha after its technology, the process of capturing and analysis of the data is relatively simple: a thermal chamber captures images of the player’s body, and the software uses artificial vision algorithms to automatically recognize the human figure and segment it in more than 110 different body regions. Capture process through thermal cameras. Image: Girona FC The key is in the detection of thermal asymmetries between symmetrical areas of the body. When there is a significant temperature difference between, for example, the right leg and the left can indicate the presence of a muscle overload, inflammation or the beginning of an injury. According to the firm All this analysis is completed in less than 30 seconds, generating automatic reports with advanced metrics and intelligent alerts. Precision and detail in injury prevention. Medical thermography is not a novelty, but its automation does represent an important qualitative leap. As Explain The company, the traditional thermograms analysis methods required manual processes that took some more time to professionals for analysis and decision making. Themohuman says having reduced this time to less than 20 seconds, with a reliability greater than 96%. In addition, the system is not limited to offering a snapshot of the moment: it creates a history of each athlete that allows identifying patterns and anomalies based on historical data. This means that it can detect subtle variations that could go unnoticed in a traditional physical examination. Software in which the information is processed and analyzed, with detailed patterns for each player. Image: Girona FC Real Madrid also joins this technology. Incorporating it into the first team From the hand of Ismael Fernández, CEO of Thermohuman and new member of Xabi Alonso’s coaching staff. Although the club I already used the system In your basketball team and women’s soccer team, it is now part of the Comprehensive Strategy for the Prevention of Lesions of the First Team. Xabi will integrate technology along with other systems such as drones for tactical analysis and advanced GPS technologies. This is already used in the rest of clubs. The use protocol varies according to the club, but generally includes regular measurements for both healthy players and those in the process of recovery. The Gironafor example, performs evaluations after each party and two days before the next meeting, which allows them to adjust the training loads individually. The Atlético de Madrid He was a pioneer in LaLiga in using the Themohuman method in the 2017/2018 season. And in other international examples, such as The case of Aston VillaThey use the system weekly as part of their fatigue and recovery management strategy. More companies that offer infrared thermography applied to sport. Other outstanding companies in this area are prein, with A software based on artificial intelligence To prevent injuries, and Omniathletean Italian consultant with more than two decades of experience. There are also solutions such as Thermidswhich offers portable systems to monitor sports performance. As for hardware, there are companies like Teledyne flir either Themoteknix which offer thermal cameras and infrared sensors, the technological base of thermography by infrared. Among other prominent measurement technologies we have also seen in the world of sport The GPS Potosthat a good part of the elite clubs use them to record the performance of each player at the individual level. Tech science in sport is not everything. The theoretical practical utility is in the prevention, monitoring of the recovery and management of players’ fatigue. According to Atlético de Madrid, in 2018 the use of its thermographic protocol registered 70 % less muscle injuries (from 15 to 6) and Thermuman endorse in your studies A 90 % reduction on low days. These types of technologies are very valuable in modern football, where the burden of matches and training can lead players to the limit of their physical abilities. However, although they have greatly helped physical trainers, there are few voices of experts who talk about Increased injuries. Edu Pons, Physical Exparter in different categories of Barça and now professor and researcher at INEFC Lleida, I commented for example that the bibs are increasing injuries because “there is more and more intensity and density.” “Yes it is true that it can help you train or value the load better, but I am not in favor of stating that it is the panacea.” “They also help good recovery methods after a party or training, as well as a good prevention work.” And it is that in a world with more monitoring than ever, injuries are still very frequent, so technology must also be accompanied by good physical preparation. Cover image | Girona FC and Real Madrid exclusive In Xataka | The Rocambolesca History of Ferrari 512 TR of Michael Jordan: 15 years lost and has appeared among the ashes of a fire

How a plague threatens to become a public health crisis

January 28, 2025 by usatoday24

Two years ago, a group of researchers and scientific advisors regarding pests, revealed that ticks (Hyalomma Lusitanicum) They had become strong in Catalonia. The invasive species It had been located in 3rd municipalities of the region of Barcelona and one of that of Tarragona. It was, as the researchers repeated by active and passive, a “potential public health problem.” One that did not get control It would be very “Difficult to control” in a short time. Then, As the researchers explain nowthe authorities prepared to do absolutely nothing. And the situation has been uncontrolled. If two years ago, the number of Catalan municipalities where the presence of the tick had been detected It was 31; Today the plague has been located In 81 municipalities (55 located in Barcelona and 26 in Tarragona). What happened? Beyond the inaction of public health authorities, the increase in ticks in Catalonia is not accidental. The Hyalomma Lusitanicum proliferate thanks to The high temperatures of recent yearsto changes in soil uses (which unbalance ecosystems and make them more vulnerable to invasive species) and, above all, To increase the main hosts From this tick: rabbits and The wild boars. But … Why is this a problem? It must be recognized that, at first glance, ticks do not seem like a big public health problem, but what if they are. Above all, because we talk about disease vectors at a historical moment in which these diseases are just around the corner. For the Hyalomma Lusitanicum, What most worries the experts is their relationship with Crimea-Congo hemorrhagic fevera serious illness that we detected in Spain in 2016 and has a mortality rate between 10% and 40%. It is not the only pathology (the Lyme disease Or Babesiosis are also transmitted thanks to them), but it is the clearest show of how the plague could cause serious problems in a densely populated area. And what can be done? At the time, researchers They raised that we had to “start a monitoring program to know the distribution of this and other ticks.” One with sufficient detail to allow elaborate ambitious control plants; something that the Gares Project of the Ministry of Health I would not allow. But, in reality, the problem goes further: it is something that shows everything that remains to be done. It seems that we have not come to understand that the epidemiological situation of our country (and the world) has changed radically. The geoclimatic borders containing the diseases have disappeared, the world has flattened and we have to assemble epidemiologically to defend ourselves. What the ticks show is that we are not doing it. Image | Adam Roscoe | Carlos Pradera & Agustín Estrada-Peña In Xataka | The ‘era of epidemics’ has already begun: are we prepared to face them?

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