When poultry farms become infected with bird flu and kill millions of birds, should we really subsidize them with considerable compensation, taking into account the scientific knowledge about the causes of this disease?
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is killing poultry, wild birds and some mammals throughout the world. Owls, eagles, penguins, bears, porpoises and more have died, as has a dog that chewed on a dead goose in Oshawa, Ontario. A small but disturbing number of humans have died, also. He Concern of the World Health Organization Avian flu could be transmitted between humans and cause a pandemic. Caused by a virus called H5N1, this disease is clearly affecting more than just farmers and consumers of chicken and eggs.
Meanwhile, experts suggest that commercial poultry, especially those raised on factory farms and crowded into barns, are one of the culprits for the rapid spread of the disease. But one response from the Canadian government is to compensate farmers (paying millions to the industry for culling birds) without requiring greater biosecurity against potential pathogens. Perhaps we should question this approach.
This is what we should know:
Industry officials blame Wild birds, but there are more.
Poultry companies point the finger at migrating ducks and geese, which carry bird flu viruses and can shed germs when they fly overhead. It’s true that wild birds have been carrying the flu virus for a long time, but mainly in innocuous strains. However, the lethal version of HPAI has emerged. mainly among farm birds. It is documented in scientific journals that are often overlooked because they are dense or paid for.
A study Madhur Dhingra, a scientist at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and her colleagues identified all reported cases over 55 years in which bird flu viruses mutated from low pathogenic to highly pathogenic, which showing that more than 94 percent were in commercial poultry, mostly in high-income countries. Bird flu experts, such as Ron FouchierThey say, it has increased with intensive poultry production. Researchers They say that avian flu is one of the livestock diseases resulting from the explosive global production and trade of farm animals. He UN Scientific Working Group on Avian Influenza and Wild Birds says: “Wild birds are both victims and vectors of a virus that originates in the poultry environment.”
Poultry companies make money from slaughtering birds.
Paying poultry companies is the Canadian government’s response to HPAI. When Canadian farmers detect infections, they must report them, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) orders the “depopulation” of herds. Farmers receive federal compensation for the market value of the birds, plus slaughter costs. Federal payments have totaled $202 million across Canada in recent years, the CFIA press office told me. However, poultry companies that received money were not required to strengthen biosecurity against potential pathogens. The CFIA works with industry and provinces on biosecurity and disease response, the spokesperson said, “but the compensation payment is not linked to specific biosecurity measures.”
Experts suggest that commercial poultry, especially those from factory farms, are to blame for bird flu. But one response from the Canadian government is to pay millions to farmers for culling birds. Should we question this approach? #pandemic
Perhaps the lack of rigorous requirements is one reason some poultry regions have had multiple disease culls and the multiple trade-offs that come with that. CFIA website shows regions that have been put through this wringer repeatedly. Critics have said taxpayer money is funding bird culls that are inhuman. I will add that we are promoting a method of food production that scientists believe feeds HPAI.
Poultry in British Columbia is a hotbed for bird flu.
Of the 11 million birds slaughtered in Canada in recent years for avian flu infections, a total six million (more than half) – were in British Columbia, even though the province produces only 14 per cent of Canadian chicken and 12 per cent of eggs. Most domestic poultry products come from Ontario and Quebec. Amanda Brittain of British Columbia’s Poultry Emergency Operations Center said Metro Vancouver’s Fraser Valley is on migratory routes and mild winters attract wild birds to spend the winter there. Additionally, she said, the mountainous geography means that poultry farms are concentrated in close proximity. While barns on the prairies may be 10 kilometers away, she said, “here in the Fraser Valley, within a 10-kilometer radius, we could have 25 farms.”
Density is key: the density of the barns and the density of the animals inside them. Today, almost all poultry is raised on factory farms. 75 percent globally, 99 percent in the US., and most in Canada. Reflects the 800 percent increase in world poultry meat production in 50 years, and the tens of billions (yes, billions) of farm-raised birds on the planet at any given time. Chicken is such a favorite food that now poultry outweighs wild birds by more than 2 to 1. Grouped in barns like those in British Columbia, which house 50,000 chickens, the animals are already less resilient than normal. Bred for maximum meat and egg production, they are less genetically diverse. And while viruses lurk in nearby wild bird habitats, those chickens aren’t social distancing!
Solutions: let’s talk long term.
Discussion about solutions tends to focus on biosecurity, which is important but does not address the inherent unsustainability of large-scale poultry production.
The climate is part of this discussion. We already know Animal proteins generate more greenhouse gas emissions. and environmental degradation than plant-based proteins. Although many people perceive chicken as less harmful to the climate than beef or pork, it is still worse than plant-based proteins like versatile lentils, of which Canada is a leading producer.
The bird flu is further evidence of the need to move towards smaller-scale agriculture that is also more plant-based. Those are key ingredients in sustainable agriculture and diets, they say. important reports about future healthy eating. For poultry production, as for other types of livestock, we could de-intensify, reduce herd sizes and farm density, and limit the enormous distances over which farm animals are transported. Consumers, especially in middle- and high-income countries, where meat consumption is high but alternative proteins are abundant, can eat more plants.
In the opinion of the avian flu working group, we must question the very “nature and sustainability” of current poultry systems. Doing so makes sense now that bird flu has become a potential crisis for wildlife conservation, food security and planetary well-being. Perhaps the bird flu will motivate us to change agriculture and diets to ones that are healthy and not prone to disease and that work with nature, not against it.