ast night I received a press release written by one of my friends in the
poultry world concerning Avian Flu.
December 3, 2008
ast night I received a press release written by one of my friends in the
poultry world concerning Avian Flu.
USGS Study Assures No HP Bird Flu Found
2 December 2008
By Christine Heinrichs, SPPA Director
The latest report from the United States Geological Survey's study of Avian Influenza shows that Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza is not traveling with migratory birds. Low pathogenic forms, which have been documented for many years, continue to circulate in migratory bird populations.
The USGS study identified one of eight gene segments more closely related to Asian than to North American strains of low pathogenic Avian Influenza in less than half the 1,400 wild northern pintail ducks sampled in Alaska. The USGS released the report under the headline, "Genetics Provide Evidence for the Movement of Avian Influenza Viruses from Asia to North American via Migratory Birds." Several publications reprinted the release without qualifying information, giving the impression that the crossover disease is on its way. On the contrary, the report suggests the opposite.
"Re-framing this slight addition to the research and releasing it with a headline that doesn't qualify what kind of Avian Influenza they are talking about fans public fears," said Craig Russell, president of the Society for Preservation of Poultry Antiquities.
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, H5N1, has been confirmed in 387 human cases and 245 deaths since 2003 by the World Health Organization. Fears that it could mutate into a pandemic fueled media reports and government preparations for mass illness, and monitoring programs such as the USGS survey. Such fears have not been realized, but have provoked desperate measures against poultry. Nearly all of the 200,000,000 birds that have died have been killed by official culling rather than the disease itself, according to Elizabeth Krushinskie, D.V. M., Ph.D, vice president of Food Safety and Production Programs at the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association.
"I don't think this is much that is new, and should not be spun to sound too dire!" said D. Phillip Sponenberg, DVM, PhD, professor of pathology and genetics in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine's Department of Biomedical Sciences at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. "This has been going on forever, and will continue to do so. I suppose the surveillance is warranted, but folks should not panic at all."
Public interest in chickens continues to increase, even in urban and suburban locations.. The November 17 issue of Newsweek magazine features the phenomenon of City Chickens, http://www.newsweek.com/id/168740. The article mentions fears of Bird Flu and takes a much more measured and scientifically based attitude toward it. "But avian flu has not shown up in wild birds, domestic poultry or people in the United States. And, as the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute (an environmental research group) pointed out in a report last month, http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5900, experts including the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production have said that if we do see it, it'll be more likely to be found in factory-farmed poultry than backyard chickens. As GRAIN, an international sustainable agriculture group, concluded in a 2006 report: 'When it comes to bird flu, diverse small-scale poultry farming is the solution, not the problem.'"
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health have documented that most deaths from the 1918 influenza pandemic, to which Bird Flu has been compared, were due to secondary bacterial infections, not the virus itself. Modern antibiotics would play a significant role in reducing potential mortality in the event of an influenza pandemic of that kind.
These facts can help small flock owners defend their birds against criticism. Join the Society for Preservation of Poultry Antiquities and support small flock owners by sending $15 to Secretary/Treasurer Dr. Charles Everett, 1057 Nick Watts Rd., Lugoff, SC 29078
I have known Christine for some time and have plagued her about obscure poultry questions for almost two years now. I am pleased to promote her new book How To Raise Chickens: Everything You Need To Know which is now out in bookstores. I highly recommend it.
Christine is a journalist, who has been a director for the Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities for the past 9 years.
Click on the Book cover to find out more about it!
