Scientists Fight Back Against H5N1 Avian Flu

Dr. Webster, a professor at St. Jude Children’s Hospital (Memphis, Tenn.), was one of more than 300 experts from over 100 countries who met at FAO’s headquarters in Rome in late May to discuss the spread of the virus.

“There is no doubt that the wild birds play their role (in spreading the virus), but so do humans,” says Webster. “People acknowledge that probably the most important spreader of influenza overall is the human and the globalization of trade.” He also said that there was evidence that migrating wild birds helped to spread bird flu to Mongolia from China last year and in general contributed to the spread of the virus from Asia to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

A spokesperson for St. Jude Children’s Hospital declined a request from Food Quality for an interview with Dr. Webster, saying his schedule would not permit it.

AI’s North American Arrival

Gary Ades, senior vice president of EHA Consulting Group Inc. and a member of Food Quality’s Editorial Advisory Panel¸ says H5N1 will arrive in North American waterfowl in the near future, adding that this is also the consensus of a think tank discussion recently held at the 2006 International Livestock Congress in Houston, Texas.

Ades, along with representatives from the domestic and international poultry industry, governmental agencies in the United States and Canada, food service, distributors, academia, trade associations, vaccine manufacturers and consultants, gathered to discuss the future of Avian Influenza (AI).

“If AI invades commercial poultry systems, it will be quickly identified, contained and controlled at the local level,” Ades says. “This will be accomplished with effective bio-security in production systems, through testing of commercial flocks, aggressive surveillance and rapid response.”

He adds that media-driven consumer over reaction will also occur and the industry will suffer from consumers seeing flocks destroyed and the expected loss of consumer demand over the false fear of contracting AI from eating poultry.

This false fear is indeed false. “When a chicken is infected with AI, it doesn’t make it to slaughter. It dies,” Ades comments. “And even though that infection scares the heck out of people, it shouldn’t. Also, the kill temperature for AI is 160° F. The government lists a temperature of 165° F, but that is to kill resistant Salmonella. It’s a kill temperature, not a cook temperature. You would cook chicken at a higher temperature; otherwise it would still be bloody.”

The think tank panel did, however, find some issues of concern. Impact from recreational fowl (gamecock, waterfowl and upland game birds such as quail and pheasants) and backyard flocks (which include free-range, live/wet markets) will be the primary factor in the failure of containment-control strategies, according to Ades.

“The live wet markets are popping up all over the country,” he says. “These markets sell live chickens. You pick it, they kill it. And free range birds are not the best thing to have despite what consumers think. These chickens are subjected to all kinds of environments, eating anything they want, which includes contaminants. Birds that are raised in houses or cages are very well cared for. Their environment is controlled and they are eating properly for controlled growth.

It doesn’t behoove anyone, from a financial standpoint, to mistreat these animals.” Ades also cites concern over lack of a consistent or effectively communicated planning strategy. “There is a lot of information available from USDA, WHO, OIE, trade associations, academia and SSAFE,” he says. “But we want a unified message. In the eyes of the consumer, who is the spokesperson? The industry lacks credibility.”

Effective leadership is needed to link the constituents to drive planning and communications efforts prior to emergence of infection in North America, according to the think tank panel’s recommendations. “We need guide programs for crisis planning and risk communication,” Ades says. “And we need to select spokespeople who are credible to the public.”