Avian Bird Flu Updates

European nations scared about avian bird flu – Rush to strengthen defences

Europe is racing to bolster its defences against bird flu, fearing it could be winging its way to the continent with migrating wildfowl, via countries that are without the financial resources and means to check its spread. While the majority of governments believe the risk to be relatively low, The Netherlands has taken extreme steps, by ordering its farmers to keep poultry out of the open. Britain has also begun to take precautionary measures, by briefing its doctors on how to handle a possible pandemic, while France has begun to stock pile avian bird flu medication for its population.

The present version of the avian bird flu is a result of the H5N1 strain which surfaced in Hong Kong around eight years ago, and has so far killed millions of birds and more than 60 people in Asia. It is now believed to be spreading to the West. However, experts have begun to take extreme caution against the possibility of a mutation, which could make the virus pass easily between humans, and thereby become even more deadly – perhaps even more the strain that broke out in 1918, killing 40 million people across the world. The last flu pandemic the world saw was in the 60’s which caused around 4 million fatalities.

Feared Gateways

Nations in Europe are running scared on account of the disease having surfaced among birds in Russia & Kazakhstan, despite the fact that no human cases have been reported there. There are fears the virus could now be carried to Europe by migratory wildfowl. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) also expressed concerns that wild water-birds could be expected to carry the virus over long distances to the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa. It said birds flying from Siberia could carry the disease to the Caspian and Black Sea regions, which along with the Balkans, would form the "gateway to central Europe for the virus".

FAO felt that bird migration routes could also run across Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Georgia, Ukraine and some Mediterranean countries, where outbreaks were possible. It also informed the countries located along possible migration routes to step up surveillance of domestic poultry and wild birds, and to prepare national emergency plans. Joseph Domenech, FAO’s Chief Veterinary officer was quoted as saying, “FAO is concerned that poor countries in southeast Europe, where wild birds mingle with others from northern Europe, may lack the capacity to detect and deal with outbreaks of bird flu.

Britain & France stocking up

At the same time, Britain and France have started taking precautionary measures of their own. Britain has plans of supplying its doctors with information packs this month itself which will include a 50 page technical guide to help identify bird flu cases in humans and guidelines on containing the outbreaks, if any occurred. At the same time, France has started building up its reserves of avian bird flu vaccines and drugs. As per French media reports, the government has already acquired 5 million doses of the antiviral drug Tamiflu and was planning to raise the level to 14 million by the end of the year. Plans of boosting the stocks of protective face masks from 50 million to 200 million were also in the pipeline.

Poultry imports banned

Imports of poultry meat and birds from Asia & Russia by member nations was banned by The European Commission, after a meeting of veterinary officials in August called for increased monitoring. While the Commission felt that the risk of migratory birds spreading the virus to Europe was low, countries bordering the Black Sea as well as Romania & Bulgaria were more at risk.

At the same time, The Netherlands, one of the world’s biggest exporters of poultry meat, has completely banned poultry from being let outdoors, in an attempt to minimise any possible contact with wild birds. The country suffered an outbreak of the milder H5N7 strain of bird flu in 2003, but the episode still left 30 million birds dead at a direct cost of more than 150 million euros ($188 million).

Vaccine Awaited

While nations across Europe are building protection against bird flu, the world’s top vaccine firms are making progress in the hunt for a shot that could effectively combat any future spread of a lethal form of bird flu. But the projects are still under research and will surely take some time.

Pet fairs could be the gateway for avian bird flu into Britain (RSPB)

While Europe is racing to build up its defences against a possible bird flu epidemic, brought in by migrating wildfowl and other wild birds, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has expressed strong opinions, that wild birds may not be solely to blame, and that birds that have placed in captivity, may have also resulted in the spread of the virus, and has urged the government to pet trade in fairs.

It is already urging the government to ban the trade in pet birds.

A special investigation for the BBC News also confirmed this fear of RSPB and other experts when it found that there was a huge market for captured wild birds in the dozens of illegal pet fairs that take place across Britain every weekend. Bird fanciers meet in scout huts and school halls across the UK to buy and sell pet birds.

Disgusting & Dangerous Markets

Neil Forbes, one of the UK's leading vets, has concluded that such fairs were a ‘cauldron of infection’. The fact that the public are allowed to frequent such places, where infections from wild birds could be potentially rife, is something that Forbes is simply unable to comprehend. The mere fact that such fairs are located in church halls and venues that are then used by members of the public, including very young children, is extremely worrying, given the current concerns across Europe, of a potentially fatal mutation of the disease.  Forbes also goes on to say: "The nightmare scenario is you could import a bird from the Far East that carries this virus, bring it into an auction hall and spread it to a number of others," he added. The infected birds could then be distributed across the UK and the end result would be the slaughtering of every chicken in the UK.

Despite this, the danger of humans falling prey to the bird flu would remain very real and the chances of human fatalities could never be ignored. Though at present, the virus is not thought to be able to jump from human to human. What scares experts most is the possibility that it could mutate and develop this ability - possibly sparking a pandemic to rival the killer global flu outbreaks of the last century.

Bigger threat

Julian Hughes, the RSPB's Head of Species Conservation, has told the media that the RSPB feel that the risk of avian bird flu being brought into the country through bird trade, and through bird fairs, was far greater than from migratory water fowl, coming in or from migration from Siberia.

On the other hand, The Parrot Society, Britain's number one club for bird lovers argues that these events should continue.

Legislation planned

Greg Glendell, a bird behaviourist and director of the Birds First charity, told the BBC that these disgusting events were nothing more than just a car boot sale for birds. He also expressed indignation at the fact that if someone was driving around like this auctioning off cats and dogs, the law would have intervened, but since it was birds, no one was concerned. The law governing bird fairs in Britain is presently a mess. However, the Animal Protection Agency, argues that they are already, essentially, illegal, although the law is rarely enforced. However, change may be at hand, since the government is currently drafting a new animal welfare bill that could put an end to these events.

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