FARM FRONT Column

Industry caused the flu; why blame wild birds?

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=119545

ASHOK B SHARMA
Posted online: Monday, March 06, 2006

Not just in India, industrial poultry is the cause of the spread of the bird
flu outbreak worldwide.

Several studies show that transnational poultry industry is the root cause
of the problem. The spread of industrial poultry production and trade
networks have created ideal conditions for the emergence and transmission of
lethal viruses like the H5N1 strains of bird flu.

Inside factory farms viruses becomes lethal and multiply. Air thick with
viral load from infected factory farms is carried for kilometres, while
integrated trade networks spread the disease through many carriers like live
birds and chicken manure.

Comparatively, the backyard poultry are not fuelling the current wave of
bird flu outbreaks stalking large parts of the world. The epicentre of the
outbreaks is the factory farms of China and South East Asia. While wild
migratory birds can carry the virus, at least for short distances, the
viruses are spread by the unhygienic factor farms, global studies said.

This situation is very true in case of the recent outbreak of bird flu in
India. The epicentre of the outbreak was in 18 factory farms in and around
Navapur in Maharashtra, where there are no sanctuary for migratory birds in
the vicinity.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation in November 2005 said, "To date,
extensive testing of clinically normal migratory birds in the infected
countries has not produced any positive results for H5N1 so far." Even with
the current cases of H5N1 in wild birds in Europe, experts agree these birds
probably contacted the virus in the Black Sea region, where H5N1 is well
established in poultry, and died while heading westward to escape the
unusually cold conditions.

The attributed reasons for the spread of H5N1 virus by migratory birds among
geese in Qinghai Lake in north China was negated by the BirdLife
International which pointed out that the lake has many surrounding poultry
farms. It has also integrated fish farms where chicken faeces are commonly
used as feed and manure. Besides, rail routes connect the region to the
areas of bird flu outbreaks like Lanzhou.

Wild migratory birds and backyard poultry are the victims and not carrier of
the disease. The geographical spread of the disease does not match with
migratory routes and seasons, the BirdLife International report said.

A study done by a global organisation, GRAIN shows that migratory birds and
backyard poultry are not effective vectors of bird flu. For example, in
Malaysia, the mortality rate from H5N1 among village chicken is only 5%,
indicating that the virus has a hard time spreading among small scale
chicken flocks. H5N1 outbreaks in Laos, which is surrounded by infected
countries, have only occurred in the nation's few factory farms, which was
supplied by Thai hatcheries.

The only case of bird flu in backyard poultry, which account for over 90% of
Laos production, occurred next to infected factory farms.

The lethal bird flu outbreaks took place in large factory farms in
Netherlands in 2003, Japan in 2004 and Egypt in 2006. The Nigerian outbreak
earlier this year occurred in a single factory farm distant from hot spots
of migratory birds, but known for importing unregulated hatchable eggs.

In September 2004, Cambodian authorities noted that the source of bird flu
outbreak was chicks supplied by the Thai company, Charoen Pokphand. This
company dominates the feed industry and is the biggest supplier of chicks to
China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Turkey, which have witnessed bird flu
outbreaks. Ukraine, where bird flu occurred, imported 12 million live birds
in 2004.

Russian authorities pointed out that feed as one of the main suspected
sources of an H5N1 outbreak at a large factory farm in Kurgan province.

A newsletter of e-Pharmail said the outbreak of avian flu in Maharashtra may
be due to inoculating improperly cultured vaccine (inactivated viruses) in
poultry, allegedly distributed by Venkateshwara Hatcheries.