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BIRDFLU (AVIAN INFLUENZA) Various
points of view in The Netherlands |
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NHDB (Dutch
Poultry Union) - No
necessity to vaccinate hobby-poultry against A.I. - See: http://www.nhdb.nl/ 25 januari 2006:
Deskundigengroep Pluimvee bevestigt NHDB-standpunt over AI-vaccinatie ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ N.P.S. (
Dutch Poultry Association) - Website www.nederlandsepluimveesoc.nl - Bird
Influenza - the truth In the media we can notice a constant flow of
reports with incorrect statements about the avian influenza (or birdflu).
These faulty reports are used by others where under ministers ! It is a scientifically proven fact that the bird
influenza is not transmitted by migratory birds in the wild. It is
transmitted by means of transportation such as animal transports (the virus
has a drivers license !). An avian influenza infection ends up quickly if it
is spread in a small concentration of farm animals. But in the stables of the
bio-industry with thousands of farm animals who have a very low disease
resistance the same infection leads very rapidly to a catastrophe. H5N1 cannot mutate into a virus dangerous for people
as the composition of the H5 virus is not suitable for this purpose. It does
not need any mutation to cause a dangerous virus for humans. For example if
pigs infected with a normal influenza virus get infected by the aviary
influenza a new mutated virus dangerous to humans could be produced. This can
cause a pandemy if humans get infected with it. Pigs can only get infected
with the H5N1 virus when these animals have contact with infected poultry
kept in a bio-industrial facility. A campaign from the Dutch animal welfare activist
group “Wakker Dier”, whatever you think of them points out the risks caused
by the so called "virus factories" (the bio-industry). Their slogan
: less consumption of animal meat means less commercial farm animals and
therefore less risk. The non-vaccination policy is only a commercial
instrument used by governments to avoid international trade conflicts. The
bio-industry and research institutes are protecting their commercial
interests and try to scare the people with a possible threat of a worldwide
pandemy. Governmental obligatory regulations such as keeping animals
completely indoors or under a roofed housing are not necessary at all. They
only cause a lot of distress for the animals. Excluding every possible risk is only possible if
tens of millions of farm animals are vaccinated ! The Dutch
Poultry Society, Ing. J. Ringnalda. mobile 0655842432 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Article by
Willem van Ballekom (Secretary of the Asian Gamefowl Society) - Club
website http://agsglobal.tripod.com/main/index.htm - Reaction to
the Non-vaccination policy of the N.H.D.B. Dear NHDB committee, The content of your express message
regarding the birdflu vaccination policy really shocked me. Yes of course do all
hobby breeders understand that their poultry flocks don’t form a real threat
in spreading the birdflu virus. But I really think that you forgot to include
other factors which I think are of major importance to our hobby. It has
become a common policy of most national poultry organizations within Europe
to forbid breeders from abroad exhibiting their birds at their domestic shows
and or the transportation of foreign birds. This makes it also impossible to
attend special breed club meetings in other EU countries. So there is no
exchange of breeding stock and bird reviews possible! I am very curious about how the
Entente committee will solve this problem concerning the upcoming European
Show in Leipzig. Or do you have any stunning solutions in mind because at
this moment with the present-day non-vaccination birdflu policy it is gonna
be a show for pigeons and rodents only! If we talk about what measures to
take I can point you in the direction of a very interesting initiative.
Shortly the Thai government has allowed cockfighting bouts again. I don’t
want to discuss cockfighting in this article, but about the measures taken to
combat spreading of the virus. Every bird entered for a cockfighting
competition should be identified with a registration mark, a passport with a
photo of the animal and a veterinary declaration stating the bird is healthy.
I think this idea is worthwhile to brainstorm about. So get your heads
together with the Entente committee and get something done about this
ridiculous non-vaccination situation. If you don’t take any steps now our
hobby will be destroyed totally in the next years future! What is the purpose of that so called
Entente Europienne anyway if breeding and showing poultry is only limited to
domestic organized shows! Getting all breeds standardized within Europe will
be pointless too. For the sake of what??? The Entente should strongly oppose
this non-vaccination policy and start lobbying at the agriculture departments
of their national governments and in the HQ of the EU in Bruxelles. What was
that slogan again? Vive L' Europe I think it was. Interesting
Link http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/12/06/2003283202 Willem van
Ballekom. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Article by
Dirk Zoebl NEGLECTED
RISKS IN THE SPREAD OF AVIAN INFLUENZA: THE BREED AND HUSBANDRY OF POULTRY In the reporting on avian influenza in newspapers,
professional and scientific journals on the spread and risks of avian
influenza, I miss a consideration which might well be of crucial
importance. It concerns the breed or
type of the affected poultry, and, strongly related with that, the type of
husbandry. Already Darwin reported on the special characteristics of free
roaming domestic animals and birds, kept by, what he called at the time, the
savages in the exotic areas. These birds have to struggle for their own
subsistence, so he maintained, and would be exposed to a certain extent to
natural selection. How different is the situation at present in the
bio-industry, where, since the 1940s, commercial poultry breeders stopped
breeding on selection for resistance against infectious diseases, because vaccines
and antibiotics became available. From now on, breeding became a maniacal
hunt for performance in egg and meat production, at the expense of other,
uptil then, useful or esthetic characteristics. It is long since known that
old breeds are more robust and resistant to certain diseases (such as gumboro
and infectious laringotracheitis) than modern hybrids. Recent parasitological
research by the Dutch Erasmus University, carried out on broilers of
different types and breeds, established that old Dutch breeds bred for
outside conditions, such as the North Holland Blue and Barnevelder, (in the
Netherlands, rains and wind prevail) had a better resistance (innate and
adaptive) against viral and bacillairy infections than the modern brands from
the bio-industry. As long as factory
birds are kept and fed in strictly isolated barns or battery cages and are
raised with balanced feeds, antibiotics and vaccines they generally perform
well. Problems arise where these ‘incubator’ birds are kept outside during
part of the day in pens or other free range conditions. This started to be
practiced commercially in England and continental Europe since the early
1980’s influenced by concerns on animal welfare. Also, a considerable amount
of hobby-breeders and rural folk never had stopped the old habit to keep
chickens outside. These hens were either of the old, robust brands such as
the Barnevelder or Welsumer (often the small, bantam types), or commercial
hybrids bought in small numbers from dealers, or crosses from these types. In
the Netherlands, about five of the 25 million bio-industrial layers are kept
under outside conditions, by a few hundreds of commercial raisers. These
birds have not at all been bred for outside conditions. They are bred and
crossed from so-called lines which are only slightly more robust than the
types kept in well sealed battery cage conditions Apart of that, over
100.0000 hobby-breeders keep a dozen or so of poultry of all kind of feather,
for pleasure, but also for the eggs and meat. Such is the situation in a high
income European country, such as the Netherlands. But how is this in the rest
of the world? And what does it mean for the spread and development of avian
flu? Breeds and husbandry aspects After 75 years without avian influenza, the Netherlands
had to cope with an outbreak again in 2003. The virus strain that caused it
was of the H7N7-combination.The strain most likely had originated from free
living ducks and had evolved into a highly pathogenic variant AFTER
introduction in commercial poultry farms. There might have been as well
contamination by transport of infectious material (the N7 part of the
combination) from commercial turkey farms in Northern Italy. Millions of
birds were killed in the ensuing stamping out program. Not only commercial
birds, also the birds of hobby-breeders were killed. However, not one single
bird of those free roaming birds of hobby-breeders was reported dead by the
pest, all were killed preventively. Were these birds maybe more robust or
resistant, due to their stress-free keeping conditions or the nature of their
robust breed? Or is the avian flu so rampant and infectious that hybrids and
old breeds alike succumb at once after infection? Is a general health without
acute stress of birds, kept the proper, old fashioned way, maybe of influence
on the specific resistance to flu? It probably will remain a subject for
professional speculation, controversy and political mud slinging, for some
time to go. In that same year the avian flu emerged in the
bio-industry of South Korea, this time the strain appeared to be of the H5N1
type. This type, first noted in 1997 in Hongkong, was eradicated in a very
strict eradication program, but seemed to have gone underground in South East
Asia, to turn up later in Korea. Since then, it has been ravaging in SE Asia,
generally in the poor villages, in free roaming local breeds in Thailand,
Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam. In July 2005 it turned up suddenly in a
mountain lake of uninhabited Central China, where thousands of wild geese,
ducks and other water fowl were found dead due to virulent strains of H5N1.
From China and Mongolia, it then spread following the Transsiberia Express to
the Ural. In the same period, dead birds of wild waterfowl and backyard
chickens were reported in Eastern European countries and in Turkey. The
casualties among birds and people, however, are rather mild: less than 100
people dead globally after 3 years of virulence and only local outbreaks
among poultry in villages and remote areas. Miraculously, the bio-industries
in Russia, Turkey and Eastern Europe as yet are not affected. But the
authorities and politicians in Western and Central Europe are very aware of ,
and have taken already some measures to cope with, the risks of a further
spread. And right they are, because an attack could affect the hundreds of
millions of birds of the commercial poultry keepers, and also the millions of
people who keep birds for sport or pleasure in their backyards. Surely, globalization not only is an economic and
social issue, but a natural and ecological as well. Modern, industrial
poultry production and breeding started in the Western world halfway the 20th
century. Since a few decades, modern brands and husbandry systems of poultry
raising are now common all over the world. But large differences still exist
in the ways of keeping poultry and in the brands and hybrids in the poorer
countries. It is especially this mix of breeds and husbandries that raises
concern. Modern hybrids, with their lack of resistance and robustness, are
increasingly kept in small amounts under backyard conditions in the villages,
the suburbs and slums, and even the inner cities of Africa, Asia and Latin
America. With proper care, medical treatments and balanced feed, they perform
much better than the local brands. But these modern hybrids have their
disadvantages, too. They cannot be raised from own stock, but have to be
bought expensively as day-old chicks from middlemen. Besides, the balanced
feeds and medical treatments also have to be purchased. If not properly housed and protected, they
will be caught by predators or succumb to diseases much earlier than the
local breeds. Therefore, not everybody, especially not the poor and needy,
can afford keeping these hybrids. More often than not, these hybrids are kept
together with, or in close contact to, the local robust brands. They scavenge
together with ducks, turkeys, geese, pigs, and roam around in swampy or
marginal land where other wildlife and fowl prevails. Children play with
their pet birds and animals, and not only with live birds: also with the
heads and the feet of slaughtered birds. What are the global consequences of
this mix of bird types and behaviour of their keepers for the spread of avian
flu? My concern The current threat of a new fowl pest from the poor
East to the rich West is not easy to tackle. The efforts and political
actions to deal with it are sometimes downright hilarious. Politician
Zjirinofski edicted the ukase to kill all migratory birds from Turkey to
Russia at the border. The minister of health of Turkey came with the idea to
eradicate all backyard poultry raising and to turn for 100% to modern
bio-industry (and this after an old Turkish backyard keeper told a journalist
that, if he had to choose between his wife and his chickens, he would prefer
to get rid of his wife). But even respected organizations like the FAO and
the WHO come with foolish, unpractical measures. They think about helping
local stamping out programs with extra money and manpower. How do they think
to act, even with one or two billion dollar programs, in persuading millions
of scattered villagers with each ten or twenty hens only, to get rid of their
highly priced fowl? In countries where mistrust of, rather than cooperation
with, officials is the rule? And where, besides, corruption is the rule
rather than the exception? I am not an epidemiologist, and not even a
veterinary, but still, I have some good advice to the specialists and
politicians involved. A Dutch saying goes: do not mop without closing the
tap. Indeed, I think mopping without thinking about the tap is a useless
drain of money and resources. So, my advise would be: 1) Find out by laboratory trials or checks whether
local brands or breeds have any advantage in resistance or robustness to
attacks of avian influenza, and , if so, under what kind of husbandry
conditions 2) In case of a local outbreak, make a distinction
in breeds or types of the affected fowl: local, hardy breeds, hybrids, or
crosses? What is the local or regional composition or percentage of local
breeds and hybrids? And how is the situation in the direct surroundings?
Irrespective of whether laboratory trials on differences in resistance have
been done, this distinction might be useful. Pathogen surveillance not only
should differentiate between wild and domestic birds, but also between local
breeds and hybrids. 3) By including such knowledge and criteria, the
monitoring, early detection, responses and the effectiveness of measures to
mitigate or control the pest could gain: at least, so I hope. About the author: Dirk Zoebl is agronomist, raised at Wageningen
University in tropical crop husbandry. He has no education or professional
experience in animal husbandry, veterinary science or epidemiology. Yet, he
has kept poultry for about 20 years of his life: some 10 years as a boy in
Holland, and 10 years during his professional life in Latin America and
Kenya. He always had a keen interest in the poultry development projects in
these countries and in the backyard keeping of small animals and birds. Back
in the Netherlands, he followed with increasing uneasiness the reporting and
news on bio-industry, development efforts in the overseas backyard husbandry
systems and the measures to contain animal pests and diseases, locally and
worldwide. He agrees with his countryman professor in ecology van Noordwijk,
that animal pests, and control measures to contain them, are too serious a
matter to be left to professionals and economists. He also is an editor with
the journal “Zeldzaam Huisdier”, a periodical from the Dutch Rare Breed
Survival Trust. His e-mail is: dirkzoebl@hotmail.com |
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