B/F linked to global Trade in POULTRY

    
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/12/news/flu.php

        Bird flu is linked to global trade in poultry
Migrating birds no longer seen as culprit in outbreaks
By Elisabeth Rosenthal Published: February 12, 2007


ROME: Most of the scattered bird flu outbreaks so far this year probably can be traced to illegal or improper trade in poultry, scientists believe. This probably includes recent outbreaks in Nigeria and Egypt as well as the large outbreak on a turkey farm in England.

Last winter, wild migrating birds were deemed the primary culprit in the bird flu infestations that hopscotched across Europe and Africa. Dead swans and ducks were found in many countries, including Austria, France and Italy.

"Many of us at the outset underestimated the role of trade," said Samuel Jutzi, director of Animal Production and Health at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. "The virus is behaving rather differently than last year — it's rather enigmatic."

No outbreaks have been attributed to wild birds so far this season and not a single infected wild bird has been detected in Europe or Africa, despite a heightened surveillance system devised in the wake of the crisis last year.

In most of the world, there have been far fewer outbreaks compared to a similar period in 2006. In Europe, there has been only one in Hungary in January, and another this month on a turkey farm in Suffolk, England.

Although they have not reached a final conclusion, investigators from the Food and Agriculture Organization and the British government suspect that trade may have set off those outbreaks.

The large poultry farm that was the site of the outbreak in Suffolk was owned by a company, Bernard Matthews, that also raises birds in Hungary, a spokeswoman for the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which is investigating the outbreak, said Monday. Partially processed meat was routinely shipped from the company's Hungarian farm to the one in Suffolk for final processing.

Although the avian influenza virus is killed by cooking, it survives well in raw meat and such shipments may have brought it into England and onto the property. It could have been transported from the processing plant into the animal pens on workers' shoes or farm equipment.

In Africa and Asia, several countries have emerged this season as perpetual bird flu trouble spots, with constant cases in birds and some transmission to humans: Indonesia in Asia and Egypt and Nigeria in Africa. Trade may play a role in these countries as well, officials said.

"There's still some way to go in these three places," Jutzi said. "In most places where we've seen outbreaks this year — like South Korea, the U.K., Thailand, Vietnam — the disease has re- emerged as we expected it would from time to time, but we're confident that it has been brought under control."

There have been no human deaths in Europe from avian influenza, but scientists are worried that the virus could mutate so that it would more readily infect humans, setting off a worldwide pandemic.

Globally, 272 people are known to have contracted bird flu and almost all had close contact with sick birds. A United Nations team this week concluded that a 16-year-old girl who died last month in Lagos was a typical victim. Although her family lived in the city and generally purchased poultry at a supermarket, her family had purchased two live birds at an open market just before Christmas. One died on the ride home and the girl helped pluck and prepare the carcass for eating.

Although bird flu was presumed to be under control in Nigeria late last year, "there has been a recrudescence in recent months," said Tony Forman, a scientist with the UN team. "It used to be primarily in big poultry farms, but now we're seeing it in small farms and backyard flocks."

Forman said there was "fairly good circumstantial evidence" that illegal poultry imports and transport were responsible for bird flu problems in Egypt and Nigeria, particularly of eggs and chicks.

Such trade is very hard to trace and control, if only because of the volume. "The poultry sector is the most globalized in agriculture," Jutzi said. "There is incredible movement of chicks and other products."

Scientists are unsure why wild birds have not been implicated in spreading bird flu this year, although they speculate it might have to do with warmer weather. Last year, extremely cold weather in areas in Central Asia where bird flu is endemic might have forced birds like swans that normally do not migrate very far to travel longer distances across Europe.