Avian Flu Threatens Southeast Asia

by Sherry Morse

An outbreak of avian flu has infected millions of chickens across Asia, killed ten people in the region and has led countries across Asia to try to stop its spread by culling chickens.

Avian flu was originally thought to infect birds only, but since 1997, several humans have contracted the flu after direct contact with infected birds.

Health officials are concerned that the current strain of avian flu might mutate to a more lethal form or a form that might be passed from human to human, and that the risk of this will increase if it becomes more widespread throughout Asia.

Most of the current human cases have been traced to direct contact with sick birds, and many of the victims have been young children. So far there has been no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus.

The World Health Organization (WHO) insisted that the mass slaughter of infected birds is crucial to controlling the outbreak of the avian flu.

The organization also recommends that those handling infected birds be inoculated against the human flu virus to reduce the risk that the massive cullings might trigger an influenza pandemic if the virus were to swap genes with a common flu virus.

Factors which contribute to the spread of avian flu to humans include poor sanitation on the farms and in the bird markets in Asia; bird markets in close proximity to the living areas and playgrounds of many apartment complexes; and the practice of slaughtering chickens at the markets and not in centralized slaughterhouses away from the general population.

Chicken farms, live-animal markets and other places contaminated with the droppings or saliva of infected birds may help transmit the flu from the birds to humans.

In spite of WHO officials' assertion that properly cleaned and cooked chicken products will not transmit bird flu, chicken prices have fallen sharply in many countries as many people have stopped eating chicken.

"I don't care what they say," said Farah Khan, a Pakistani mother. "I have stopped eating chicken and (I am) not allowing my children to eat any poultry product."

Migratory birds are being focused on as one potential source for the spread of the virus.

Dr. Brian Eaton, a virologist with the Australian Animal Health Laboratory said, "It is important to have housing for the chickens which prevents wild birds from entering to minimize the risk of diseases being introduced."

Animal advocacy groups are protesting the inhumane methods being used to slaughter the chickens in some of the affected countries.

TV pictures show birds being thrown alive into sacks, which are then dumped in holes in the ground.

"Mass culling of animals always raises a conflict between speedy dispatch and humane slaughter methods," said Joyce D'Silva, chief executive of Compassion in World Farming (CIWF).

"The appallingly rough treatment of these chickens, followed by their probable suffocation or death by heart attacks, or the effects of the lime thrown into the burial pits, is a welfare scandal," she said.

CIWF is calling for all relevant authorities in the affected countries to urgently implement a humane slaughter policy with veterinary supervision.

The rapid growth of intensive animal farms in eastern Asia seems to be mirrored by the increase in animal diseases such as avian flu which can infect humans, with deadly results.

© 2004 Animal News Center, Inc.