Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
Intensive animal production may boost flu pandemic threat
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Rapidly rising global poultry numbers, along with selective breeding and production techniques which have dramatically altered the bodies of chickens and other poultry, have made the planet more ?infectable?, Professor Stephen Hinchliffe says.
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?We question the sustainability and security of the kinds of intensive protein production that are now being rolled out across the planet.?
Some current forms of avian influenza can infect people and ? though none can so far be transmitted from human to human ? the scientists say the current ?swarm? of influenzas circulating gives cause for heightened concern.
Professor Hinchliffe added: ?Avian flu has been around for a long time, circulating in wild birds without too much of an issue.
?But as inexpensively produced protein-rich diets become a worldwide norm, poultry populations, growth rates and metabolisms have changed accordingly.
?This is due to economic pressure driving selective breeding, feed and dietary supplements, changing housing regimes, population densities and sometimes inappropriate use of veterinary medicines like antibiotics.
?To get to market weight takes a third of the time it did 30 or so years back with the result that disease tolerance is often compromised.
?Between that and sheer numbers, flock densities and global connectivity, humans have created a new set of conditions for viral selection and evolution.
?As any epidemiologist will tell you, a microbe can only become deadly or pathogenic if there are the right environmental and host conditions.
...
Date: 16 January 2017
http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/featurednews/title_563578_en.html
...
Rapidly rising global poultry numbers, along with selective breeding and production techniques which have dramatically altered the bodies of chickens and other poultry, have made the planet more ?infectable?, Professor Stephen Hinchliffe says.
...
?We question the sustainability and security of the kinds of intensive protein production that are now being rolled out across the planet.?
Some current forms of avian influenza can infect people and ? though none can so far be transmitted from human to human ? the scientists say the current ?swarm? of influenzas circulating gives cause for heightened concern.
Professor Hinchliffe added: ?Avian flu has been around for a long time, circulating in wild birds without too much of an issue.
?But as inexpensively produced protein-rich diets become a worldwide norm, poultry populations, growth rates and metabolisms have changed accordingly.
?This is due to economic pressure driving selective breeding, feed and dietary supplements, changing housing regimes, population densities and sometimes inappropriate use of veterinary medicines like antibiotics.
?To get to market weight takes a third of the time it did 30 or so years back with the result that disease tolerance is often compromised.
?Between that and sheer numbers, flock densities and global connectivity, humans have created a new set of conditions for viral selection and evolution.
?As any epidemiologist will tell you, a microbe can only become deadly or pathogenic if there are the right environmental and host conditions.
...
Date: 16 January 2017
http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/featurednews/title_563578_en.html
