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News from BirdLife International

Bird‘flu follows trade, not migration routes

29-03-2007

A comprehensive critical review of recent scientific literature on the spread of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N, published in the British Ornithologists Union journal Ibis[1], concludes that poultry trade, rather than bird migration, is the main mechanism of global dispersal of the virus.  

The review finds that migratory birds have been widely and repeatedly blamed for outbreaks that have subsequently been found to originate in the movement of live poultry and products such as poultry meat. The authors, French ecologists Michel Gauthier-Clerc, Camille Lebarbenchon and Frederic Thomas of Station Biologique de la Tour du Valat (a research centre for the conservation of Mediterranean wetlands) and GEMI (Génétique et Evolution des Maladies Infectieuses –the Laboratory of Genetics and Evolution of Infectious Diseases), warn that a misdirected emphasis on contacts between wild birds and outdoor poultry may lead to a reversion to intensive indoor poultry rearing, which actually increases the risk  of outbreaks.  

http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2007/03/avian_flu_report.html

cgeoff

An excellent article. I do hope that the HK Government draws the very clear and logical parallels that exist with the captive bird trade.

Unfortunately, I fear that in HK it will take rather longer until acceptance on the part of the authorities that bird flu transmits through the (inhumane) transport of either poultry or captive birds. Unfortunately, I fear we will continue to see ill-informed, knee-jerk statements regarding wild birds and the 'migratory season' on the part of government officials when discussing bird flu cases.

Geoff