Factory Farms Ferment Bird Flu

NoNAIS.org ^ | 2006-05-19 | Walter Jeffries

[pubwvj]

New research suggests that the source of bird flu may be factory farm chicken feces that are then used as commercial fish food and fertilizer in fields thus exposing humans and other birds to the H5N1 Avian Influenza virus (AI or bird flu).[1] This is thought to explain some of the outbreaks in China as well as the recent cluster of human deaths in Sumatra. Some feel that this may explain the reservoirs of avian flu in the wild - factory farms are infecting wild fish and birds.

Government officials have been warning about the threat of migratory wild birds bringing AI to our shores and using that as an excuse to push the USDA's proposed complex, costly and ineffectual National Animal Identification System (NAIS). Recent research has shown that migratory wild birds are not spreading the virus as had been originally thought. One of the puzzling aspects of the migratory bird vector had been that the route of AI infection has not followed the migratory bird routes. It appears that perhaps the infection pattern is following the shipping routes for the trade in poultry products from factory farms.

The concern is that the factory farms represent the ideal conditions for breeding mutated forms of High Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) with their crowded, stressed conditions. Previously the large corporate factory farms were blaming backyard poultry for Avian Flu but recent scientific reports point to factory farms as the cause of bird flu.

The spread of industrial poultry production and trade networks has created ideal conditions for the emergence and transmission of lethal viruses like the H5N1 strain of bird flu. Once inside densely populated factory farms, viruses can rapidly become lethal and amplify. Air thick with viral load from infected farms is carried for kilometers, while integrated trade networks spread the disease through many carriers: live birds, day-old-chicks, meat, feathers, hatching eggs, eggs, chicken manure and animal feed. -Global Research of Canada

Prior to the virus making the jump to humans the bird flu virus may be spreading with the aid of the international trade in poultry and poultry products including manure from factory farms. The virus is able to survive for long periods in the manure allowing it to travel great distances. Factory farm poultry manure is used in fish food at commercial fish farms, in cattle and other commercial animal feeds as well as commercial garden fertilizer that are used by both large scale farming and by consumers. Thus consumers may be unwittingly spreading infected manures on their home gardens. This may represent the most dangerous worldwide vector for avian influenza in it's current low path non-human infectious form. It is believed that the recent cluster of human deaths in Sumatra were caused by infected factory farm manures because the manure tested positive while the local backyard poultry tested negative for AI. Initial tests for H5N1 in the other livestock were negative but new tests have found anti-bodies to Avian Flu. It is thought that the manure may have caused the infection in the livestock, farmers and their families. This morning two more deaths were reported in this cluster bringing the total to eight human deaths.

Subsequent exposure to consumers, workers and farmers using the contaminated poultry factory farm manures may provide the virus with the opportunity to select for a mutation that is easily transmissible human-to-human. This would then lead to the second vector, migratory humans. Human to human transmission is widely recognized as the most dangerous threat, especially in urban areas where people are stressed and tightly crowed. A much more real threat is likely to be from human travelers who visit foreign countries and bring back AI infections and bringing back via air travel. The incubation time for AI is four days making it unlikely that HPAI H5N1 viral infections would be detected before the traveler returns home.

This raises the question - "Will the US State Department require tagging of all human travelers in addition to the standard vaccinations?" After all, that makes a whole lot more sense than wasting hundreds of millions of dollars tagging the livestock of small farmers and homesteaders. Given that politicians travel so much I somehow doubt they'll be willing to pass legislation that would inconvenience them, no matter how sensible it may be.

[coconutt2000]

Chicken feces makes decent fertilizer. Have to monitor the soil's pH though.

[Revel]

This is only the tip of the iceberg on Factory farms. To put it mildly they should just be outlawed. They are contaminating aqifers and water wells all over the country. The stench burns your eyes and creates breathing problems as well. In northern NY recently a wall to a pond of waiste gave way and dumped millions of gallons of the stuff into a major river. This not only contaminated the river, but killed scores of fish. It is a bad design created by Cornell. The time for its end has come.

[pubwvj]

Yes, poultry poop makes great fertilizer - it's high in nitrogen and calcium. But it is better to pasture our poultry like I do than to confine them like my cousin does in his factory farm. I have been in there. It is revolting to an extreme of excreta.