Poultry flu

Poultry Flu is a popular name for "bird flu", the highly pathogenic Avian Influenza (Type A H5N1). It is a disease primarily of poultry, and a product of the unhygienic and inhumane conditions found in the poultry industry. There is as yet no clear evidence that wild birds are spreading Poultry Flu significantly beyond the immediate area of their infection but there is abundant evidence that Poultry Flu is spread over significant distance through the transport of poultry (chicken, domesticated duck, turkey), and through other human activities.

The most efficient means to restrict the spread of this virus is to impose and enforce much stricter controls on the poultry (and caged bird) industry. These controls pertain to both the conditions in which chickens and ducks etc are reared and kept; and in the way in which they are transported.

Even if wild birds are eventually proven as vectors in one or more outbreaks of Poultry Flu, it is clear that the eradication of flocks of migrant birds, while difficult to achieve, and in many cases illegal (and immoral), would not solve the problem. This is because the virus is already widespread among poultry flocks. Therefore to control this disease, much greater effort needs to be made to restrict Poultry Flu from contaminating areas used by wild birds and people.