Commercial Poultry and its Links to Bird Flu
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Consumers Association of Penang (CAP)
No. 10, Jalan Masjid Negeri, 11600 Pulau Pinang, MalaysiA
Alert for Information / Possible Action
24 March 2006
Migratory birds were believed to be the cause of the spread of
the disease.
The slaughter of poultry in all wet markets will be banned as a
precautionary measure to prevent the bird flu virus from spread-
ing to humans. This will mean squeezing out the small producers
in favour of the commercial poultry sector.
This assumes that bird flu is a problem of wild birds and back-
yard poultry practices not modern poultry farming.
The emphasis on backyard poultry and the wild bird theory ig-
nores the role of the commercial poultry industry in the spread
of the H5N1 virus.
According to a recent report published by GRAIN (an interna-
tional organization dealing with agricultural issues), the root
of the problem is the poultry industry and this must be the fo-
cus of efforts to control the deadly H5N1 virus.
Citing bird conservationists, wild birds are victims not vectors
of highly pathogenic (disease causing) avian influenza. Highly
pathogenic strains of bird flu develop in poultry, most likely
poultry exposed to milder strains that live naturally in wild
bird populations.
In crowded poultry operations, the wild virus evolves rapidly
towards more pathogenic and highly transmissible forms capable
of jumping species and spreading back into wild birds that are
defenseless against the new strain. In this sense H5N1 is a
poultry virus killing wild birds, not the other way around.
Similarly, bird flu does not evolve to highly pathogenic forms
in backyard poultry, where low density and genetic diversity
keep the viral load to low levels. Backyard poultry are the vic-
tims of bird flu strains brought in from elsewhere.
When backyard poultry farms are separated from the source of
highly pathogenic bird flu, the virus seems to die out or evolve
towards a less pathogenic form.
Migratory birds and backyard chickens are not effective vectors
of highly pathogenic bird flu. The virus kills them, but is
unlikely to be spread by them.
In Laos, which is surrounded by infected countries, the H5N1
outbreaks have occurred in the nation's few factory farms, which
are supplied by Thai hatcheries. The only cases of bird flu in
backyard poultry, which account for over 90 percent of Laos'
production, occurred next to the factory farms.
According to the report, 'the evidence we see over and over
again from the Netherlands in 2003 to Japan in 2004 to Egypt in
2006 is that lethal flu breaks out in large scale industrial
chicken farms and then spreads'.
In Nigeria, the outbreaks earlier this year began at a single
factory farm, owned by a Cabinet Minister, distant from hotspots
for migratory birds but known for importing unregulated hatch-
able eggs.
In India, local authorities say that H5N1 emerged and spread
from a factory farm owned by the nation's largest poultry com-
pany Venkateshwara Hatcheries.
As recently as November 2005, FAO has stated that 'To date, ex-
tensive testing of clinically normal migratory birds in the in-
fected countries has not produced any positive results for H5N1
so far'.
In fact, nearly all the wild birds that have tested positive for
the disease were dead and, in most cases, found near to out-
breaks in domestic poultry.
According to Juan Lubroth, a senior officer with FAO 'It is very
easy to blame wild birds and the migration of birds because no-
body is responsible. It is possible that wild birds may intro-
duce the virus, but it is through human activities of commerce
and trade that the disease spreads'.
WHO states that a possible medium for the spread of bird flu is
chicken feed. One of the standard ingredients in industrial
chicken feed is 'poultry litter' which includes faecal matter,
feathers, bedding as well as chicken meat. Bird flu can survive
in bird faeces for up to 35 days. Yet nothing is being done to
tighten regulations or monitoring of the feed industry.
The poultry industry that has swept Asia in recent decades has
produced rapid genetic erosion. Local production systems were
displaced by integrated systems that rely on a single source of
parental stock and small farms were encouraged to give up local
breeds for high yielding breeds that are often not suited to lo-
cal conditions.
According to the Chief of the Animal Production Service of the
FAO, 'Developing animal genetic resources on farm in their pro-
duction environment is the most effective approach to maintain
genetic diversity and provide insurance against future threats
such as famine, drought, and epidemics'. And there are reports
from the World Organisation of Animal Health of local chickens
surviving the H5N1 virus.
GRAIN cautions that 'The strategy to contain H5N1 by destroying
the genetically diverse backyard flocks and developing even more
intensive poultry operations will perversely increase the like-
lihood of a human transmissible version of lethal bird flu
emerging from the large scale factory farms'.
Instead, immediate measures should be initiated to monitor and
regulate the poultry and the egg trade. Urgent efforts should be
geared towards investigating how factory farms and their by-
products such as animal feed and manure spread the lethal virus.
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CAP would like to make the following recommendations which your
organization may like to consider for action:
* Share the above information in your country either using press
releases or letters to the Government. If your country practices
factory farming for poultry, call for investigations and moni-
toring.
* Forward this Alert to other organizations in your country.
* Write letters to WHO and FAO calling for investigations based
on the above information.