Govt failure caused Bird Flu in Tripura: PETA
Recent outbreak of Bird Flu in Tripura was a result of failure of the state government in maintaining basic standards of cleanliness on poultry farms.
In a recent report the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India (PETA) said there was a deadly link between farm filth and Bird Flu.
Leading health experts—including those at the United Nations—have also blamed filthy conditions in poultry farms for the spread of the deadly H5N1 strain of Bird Flu, PETA claimed.
“The PETA had warned the Tripura government of an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 virus last year. A video footage of crowded and filthy chicken and egg farm houses was also sent to the Tripura government to solidify its findings,” PETA campaign coordinator Nikunj Sharma said.
In 2005, approximately two billion chickens were slaughtered in India. Chickens are crammed by the tens of thousands into dark, filthy sheds, where the ammonia from the birds’ accumulated waste actually burns their eyes.
Because of the filthy and cramped conditions that chickens raised for meat and eggs are forced to endure, disease is rampant. The Environmental Defence Fund also explains, “Antibiotics are routinely fed to healthy livestock and poultry to make them gain weight faster and to compensate for unsanitary living conditions.”
Indian health officials confirmed a Bird Flu outbreak among poultry in the north-eastern state of Manipur last year.
According to the World Health Organisation, out of the 342 registered cases of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, 211 people have died in 13 countries.
Factory farms provide the perfect environment for the virus to strike. Because of the intense confinement of the animals, the deadly virus could spread like wildfire.
Humans handling infected birds are prone to this disease, and experts fear that the virus will eventually mutate into a form that is transmissible from human to human, setting off a catastrophic worldwide pandemic. Five people have been found to have Bird Flu symptoms in India.
In its report, PETA suggests that the welfare standards recommended by the UK’s Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) should be used as the basic guidelines for the treatment of chickens in the poultry industry.
“The government cannot wash their hands of this by blaming the Bangladesh government for the outbreak of bird flu when conditions in their own poultry farms are conducive to the outbreak of the same deadly virus. Had the government been proactive in taking appropriate measures, the pandemic could have been averted,” the PETA Campaigns Coordinator added.
Posts
1 comments:
Spread of avian flu by drinking water:
Spread of avian flu by drinking water can explain small clusters in households
Proved awareness to ecology and transmission is necessary to understand the spread of avian flu. For this it is insufficient exclusive to test samples from wild birds, poultry and humans for avian flu viruses. Samples from the known abiotic vehicles also have to be analysed. There are plain links between the cold, rainy seasons as well as floods and the spread of avian flu. That is just why abiotic vehicles have to be analysed. The direct biotic transmission from birds, poultry or humans to humans can not depend on the cold, rainy seasons or floods. Water is a very efficient abiotic vehicle for the spread of viruses - in particular of fecal as well as by mouth, nose and eyes excreted viruses.
Infected birds and poultry can everywhere contaminate the drinking water. All humans have very intensive contact to drinking water. To prove viruses in water is difficult because of dilution. If you find no viruses you can not be sure that there are not any. On the other hand in water viruses remain viable for a long time. Water has to be tested for influenza viruses by cell culture and in particular by the more sensitive molecular biology method PCR.
There is a widespread link between avian flu and water, e.g. in Egypt to the Nile delta or Indonesia to residential districts of less prosperous humans with backyard flocks and without central water supply as in Vietnam: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no12/06-0829.htm. See also the WHO web side: http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/emerging/h5n1background.pdf .
Transmission of avian flu by direct contact to infected poultry is an unproved assumption from the WHO. There is no evidence that influenza primarily is transmitted by saliva droplets: “Transmission of influenza A in human beings” http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473309907700294/abstract?iseop=true .
Avian flu infections may increase in consequence to increase of virus circulation. In hot climates/the tropics flood-related influenza is typical after extreme weather and floods. Virulence of influenza viruses depends on temperature and time. Special in cases of local water supplies with “young” and fresh H5N1 contaminated water from low local wells, cisterns, tanks, rain barrels, ponds, rivers or rice paddies this pathway can explain small clusters in households. At 24°C e.g. in the tropics the virulence of influenza viruses in water amount to 2 days. In temperate climates for “older” water from central water supplies cold water is decisive to virulence of viruses. At 7°C the virulence of influenza viruses in water amount to 14 days.
Human to human and contact transmission of influenza occur - but are overvalued immense. In the course of influenza epidemics in Germany, recognized clusters are rare, accounting for just 9 percent of cases e.g. in the 2005 season. In temperate climates the lethal H5N1 virus will be transferred to humans via cold drinking water, as with the birds in February and March 2006, strong seasonal at the time when drinking water has its temperature minimum.
The performance to eliminate viruses from the drinking water processing plants regularly does not meet the requirements of the WHO and the USA/USEPA. Conventional disinfection procedures are poor, because microorganisms in the water are not in suspension, but embedded in particles. Even ground water used for drinking water is not free from viruses.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=26096&Cr=&Cr1
Ducks and rice [paddies = flooded by water] major factors in bird flu outbreaks, says UN agency
Ducks and rice fields may be a critical factor in spreading H5N1
26 March 2008 – Ducks, rice [fields, paddies = flooded by water! Farmers on work drink the water from rice paddies!] and people – and not chickens – have emerged as the most significant factors in the spread of avian influenza in Thailand and Viet Nam, according to a study carried out by a group of experts from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and associated research centres.
“Mapping H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza risk in Southeast Asia: ducks, rice and people” also finds that these factors are probably behind persistent outbreaks in other countries such as Cambodia and Laos.
The study, which examined a series of waves of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza in Thailand and Viet Nam between early 2004 and late 2005, was initiated and coordinated by FAO senior veterinary officer Jan Slingenbergh and just published in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States.
Through the use of satellite mapping, researchers looked at a number of different factors, including the numbers of ducks, geese and chickens, human population size, rice cultivation and geography, and found a strong link between duck grazing patterns and rice cropping intensity.
In Thailand, for example, the proportion of young ducks in flocks was found to peak in September-October; these rapidly growing young ducks can therefore benefit from the peak of the rice harvest in November-December [at the beginning of the cold: Thailand, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos are situated – different from Indonesia – in the northern hemisphere].
“These peaks in congregation of ducks indicate periods in which there is an increase in the chances for virus release and exposure, and rice paddies often become a temporary habitat for wild bird species,” the agency said in a news release.
“We now know much better where and when to expect H5N1 flare-ups, and this helps to target prevention and control,” said Mr. Slingenbergh. “In addition, with virus persistence becoming increasingly confined to areas with intensive rice-duck agriculture in eastern and south-eastern Asia, evolution of the H5N1 virus may become easier to predict.”
He said the findings can help better target control efforts and replace indiscriminate mass vaccination.
FAO estimates that approximately 90 per cent of the world’s more than 1 billion domestic ducks are in Asia, with about 75 per cent of that in China and Viet Nam. Thailand has about 11 million ducks.
Dipl.-Ing. Wilfried Soddemann - Epidemiologist - Free Science Journalist soddemann-aachen@t-online.de
Post a Comment
In case you want to ask my opinion regarding anything (especially health / education) and find it difficult to express in public domain, feel free to mail me (bruno at targetpg dot com) or call me in my mobile (98421 11725) from 6 AM to 7 AM and 8 PM to 9 PM. You can also post your queries here