Bird Flu - what is really the cause

Local authorities are preparing later this week for 'Operation Winter Willow II' - an exercise designed to test how the country would cope with a major flu epidemic - they have a scenario envisaging 30% of the population being infected and up to 750,000 people dying. It will look at how various authorities work together - and probably all good stuff if it wasn't for the fact that it raises yet more fear...fear as I've noted before can disempower and lead to greater problems...

"We do not know what the virus is that will cause pandemic 'flu. What we do know is that Mother Nature has the recipe book and its just a matter of time before she starts cooking."
Sir Liam Donaldson speaking at the launch of his 2005 Annual Report, at the Royal College of Pathologists, Carlton Terrace, London, 21 July 2006.

It has been suggested the preparations going ahead are in part as a response to a possible threat from the bird flu virus. Yet as of January 2007, the World Health Organization had confirmed only 270 cases of H5N1 in humans in Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Djibouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam, leading to 164 deaths. At present the virus does not have the ability to pass easily between humans - if it did the results could be catastrophic.
Then worldwide, experts predict anything between two million and 50 million deaths. However if that were so the mortality rate - which presently stands at around 50% of confirmed cases - could decline as it mutates. See Dept of Health website for more info.

A long while back I read 'Plague's Progress: A Social History of Man and Disease' by Arno Karlen (1995) - since then there have been similar books which look at the new plagues and diseases that are appearing at such an alarming rate and how they advance faster than ever - the reasons are spelt out when we look at how our behaviours have changes and we've damaged the environment.

It seems extraodinary we haven't learnt about the part we play in it all - take Bird Flu - Caroline Lucas MEP co-authored a report last year which examined the clear links between intensive poultry farming methods and bird ‘flu. She called on the Government to investigate urgently these links - their response has been woefully inadequate - indeed last week Ben Bradshaw ignored calls to examine the link then claims a link isn't proven. See my Glos Green party press release on this last week.

That news release didn't get picked up so I've written a letter to press over thsi weekend trying to raise more awareness for the need to look at this more:

The causes of the latest outbreak of bird flu are unknown. However last year Green MEP Caroline Lucas, released a report (i) 'Avian Flu - Time to shut the intensive poultry 'flu factories?' This showed the increasing evidence that the appalling conditions in intensive poultry production could be the original source of the deadly H5N1 bird flu.

Keeping tens of thousands of birds in cramped, warm conditions are perfect for virus mutations and infections. The international trade in hatching eggs and live poultry and the use of chicken faeces as fertilizer and as an ingredient of feed in fish farms were identified as possible transmission routes for H5N1. Dr Lucas' report concluded that the Government must consider halting factory farming to prevent the spread of the virus and the EU should immediately halt all imports and exports of live poultry and hatching eggs as a precautionary measure.

Defra Minister Ben Bradshaw has ignored calls to look more at the link between factory farming and the deadly virus. It is clear he must do his homework better. Foot and Mouth could hardly have been handled worse in 2001, we do not want to see a repeat slaughtering of millions of healthy animals (some 36 million poultry birds are registered in the South West alone) and the livelihoods of more farmers in Gloucestershire and the rest of the country destroyed.

Factory farming and live animal imports and exports are deeply cruel practices resulting in million of birds becoming sick or dying prematurely: now it seems that they could have caused the first mass outbreak of bird ‘flu on British soil. This should be a wake up call to prioritise free-range farming instead of the vile and viral intensive poultry industry.

Philip Booth, Stroud District Green Party.

The Government prefer to focus on treatments rather than looking at the causes - isn't it always the way - ASBOs instead of the causes of the behavior and drugs for cancer treatment rather than looking at the causes like the chemicals in our environment - it is certainly true that drug companies are doing very nicely out of bird flu already. A quick search of the web shows there are many who view all this with a different slant. Here is one from 'thumping the tub' blog site:

"So the summary of the story is as follows: Bush's friends decide that the medicine TAMIFLU is the solution for a pandemic that has not yet occurred and that has caused a hundred deaths worldwide in 9 years. This medicine doesn't so much as cure the common flu. In normal conditions the virus does not affect humans. Rumsfeld sells the patent for TAMIFLU to ROCHE for which they pay him a fortune. Roche acquires 90% of the global production of crushed aniseed, the base for the antivirus. The governments of the entire world threaten a pandemic and then buy industrial quantities of the product from Roche. So we end up paying for medicine while Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush doe the business."

Whether or not we accept that - and ALL Blogs should come with a health warning!! We do need to wake up to how we are creating and spreading these diseases - haven't we learnt from BSE? Greens are now calling for EU laws on keeping factory farming waste out of the human food chain to be clarified in the light of this week’s bird ‘flu outbreak. Caroline Lucas says:

“The European Commission must urgently clarify what laws are in place to ensure that waste products from intensive poultry farms – such as faeces, feathers, litter and body parts not fit for human consumption – are disposed of in ways that ensure they do not come into contact with animals or the environment. We also need to be clear whether it is permissible to use poultry waste of any kind, including meat processing by-products, litter or other waste material resulting from poultry farming, in poultry feed?

“Clearly we must be able to prevent such waste products – which we know can carry and spread the H5N1 virus – from ending up in animal feeds, fertilisers or the environment – and I have asked the European Commission to clarify the current rules on this as a matter of urgency.”

“Bird ‘flu poses a potentially deadly risk to human health. We need to know exactly what causes the virus – and how it spreads and mutates. Until we do, we must impose an immediate moratorium on the import and export of all live poultry products and hatching eggs. It's also clear that all uncooked poultry imports from infected countries should be banned - rather than banning imports just from infected regions of those countries.

Finally, in the light of Professor David King's statement this morning that we might be importing poultry from countries before we know they're infected, we must urgently consider whether we need a moratorium on all international trade in uncooked poultry products.”

Caroline Lucas is also still demanding that the Commission urgently investigates the scientific evidence that suggests intensive poultry farming is responsible for creating the breeding ground for highly pathogenic variants of avian influenza.

This all goes back to the fact that we must produce food locally wherever possible – both to cut out the environmental damage and CO2 emissions produced by transporting thousands of tonnes of food across the globe and to protect ourselves from potentially deadly diseases such as bird ‘flu - which, if it mutates to a form that is transmissible from human to human, could cause the deaths of millions across the globe. At the same time, we must halt the cruel and inhumane factory farming methods which are creating the perfect conditions for the mutation, infection and spread of animal diseases in the first place.

Note:

(i) Dr Lucas' report 'Avian ‘Flu – Time to shut the intensive poultry ‘flu factories' is available at
www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk