Bird‘flu follows trade, not migration routes
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
