prepdeb
Moderator
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Egypt's chickens fade from view
The Associated Press
TAWFIQIYA, Egypt -- Chickens used to roam every dusty street in every village across Egypt, and many of its city alleys, too.
But avian influenza is changing that. Chickens have nearly all vanished from sight, slaughtered, abandoned or locked away by a population increasingly aware of, and frightened by, the disease's stubborn grip.
Even as bird flu has dropped out of global headlines, experts are worried about its persistence around the world. With 47 human cases and 20 deaths, Egypt is the third-most-affected country after Indonesia and Vietnam.
For the past two years, the government has been trying to change the deep-rooted poultry-rearing behaviors that have turned the country of 76 million people into a bird-flu hot spot.
But only with the rising death toll -- mostly rural women who traditionally tend chickens -- have Egypt's poor finally grasped the need to alter their ways.
"In the beginning, the people were just afraid for their chickens. Now they are afraid for themselves," said Abeer Hussein Moussa, describing the gradual change in attitudes in her village of Tawfiqiya, south of Cairo in the sprawling Fayyoum oasis.
Like in Indonesia and Vietnam, Egyptian authorities have found it hard to keep people from raising chickens in their backyards, intertwining human and avian life in ways that could allow the deadly H5N1 influenza virus to someday mutate into a form contagious to humans.
Bird flu started sweeping through poultry populations across Asia in 2003 and has since jumped to humans, killing at least 236 people, nearly half of them in Indonesia.
It's still hard for people to catch it, and so far, most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds, dead or alive.
A human catches the disease by inhaling the blood, feathers or powdered feces of the poultry. Thus, those tending the birds, in Egypt usually women and children, are most vulnerable. More than 90 percent of those infected have been either adult females or children, and three-quarters of the fatalities have been women.
When the disease first appeared in Egypt in February 2006, 25 million birds were killed within weeks, devastating the poultry sector and particularly the family farmers.
"People lost a lot when the disease first appeared in Fayyoum," recalled Sahar Rabie, who educates people about bird flu in Tawfiqiya. "They would cull all the chickens in one square kilometer around a case, so people started to hide their chickens to protect them -- some slaughtered them, others hid them under the bed."
The first human cases appeared a month later, with 14 people falling ill between March and May. Six died.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has funded grass-roots education through TV and home visits by local residents such as Rabie to explain the disease to villagers -- especially women.
People are taught to keep their chickens in coops, rather than let them wander freely, especially into human living space. Villagers are also told to wear masks and gloves in the coops and wash carefully after cooking poultry.
And while Egyptians may be safer from bird flu, they have lost a key source of protein.
Chicken once provided 43 percent of Egyptians' protein needs, but egg and chicken prices are doubling.
"It was very cheap before this outbreak, the cheapest meat you can get here in Egypt," said John Jabbour of the Eastern Mediterranean office of the World Health Organization. "Poultry in the backyard was a matter of breakfast, lunch and dinner."
http://www.poultryandeggnews.com/poultrytoday/news/20080402/218170.shtml
Egypt's chickens fade from view
The Associated Press
TAWFIQIYA, Egypt -- Chickens used to roam every dusty street in every village across Egypt, and many of its city alleys, too.
But avian influenza is changing that. Chickens have nearly all vanished from sight, slaughtered, abandoned or locked away by a population increasingly aware of, and frightened by, the disease's stubborn grip.
Even as bird flu has dropped out of global headlines, experts are worried about its persistence around the world. With 47 human cases and 20 deaths, Egypt is the third-most-affected country after Indonesia and Vietnam.
For the past two years, the government has been trying to change the deep-rooted poultry-rearing behaviors that have turned the country of 76 million people into a bird-flu hot spot.
But only with the rising death toll -- mostly rural women who traditionally tend chickens -- have Egypt's poor finally grasped the need to alter their ways.
"In the beginning, the people were just afraid for their chickens. Now they are afraid for themselves," said Abeer Hussein Moussa, describing the gradual change in attitudes in her village of Tawfiqiya, south of Cairo in the sprawling Fayyoum oasis.
Like in Indonesia and Vietnam, Egyptian authorities have found it hard to keep people from raising chickens in their backyards, intertwining human and avian life in ways that could allow the deadly H5N1 influenza virus to someday mutate into a form contagious to humans.
Bird flu started sweeping through poultry populations across Asia in 2003 and has since jumped to humans, killing at least 236 people, nearly half of them in Indonesia.
It's still hard for people to catch it, and so far, most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds, dead or alive.
A human catches the disease by inhaling the blood, feathers or powdered feces of the poultry. Thus, those tending the birds, in Egypt usually women and children, are most vulnerable. More than 90 percent of those infected have been either adult females or children, and three-quarters of the fatalities have been women.
When the disease first appeared in Egypt in February 2006, 25 million birds were killed within weeks, devastating the poultry sector and particularly the family farmers.
"People lost a lot when the disease first appeared in Fayyoum," recalled Sahar Rabie, who educates people about bird flu in Tawfiqiya. "They would cull all the chickens in one square kilometer around a case, so people started to hide their chickens to protect them -- some slaughtered them, others hid them under the bed."
The first human cases appeared a month later, with 14 people falling ill between March and May. Six died.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has funded grass-roots education through TV and home visits by local residents such as Rabie to explain the disease to villagers -- especially women.
People are taught to keep their chickens in coops, rather than let them wander freely, especially into human living space. Villagers are also told to wear masks and gloves in the coops and wash carefully after cooking poultry.
And while Egyptians may be safer from bird flu, they have lost a key source of protein.
Chicken once provided 43 percent of Egyptians' protein needs, but egg and chicken prices are doubling.
"It was very cheap before this outbreak, the cheapest meat you can get here in Egypt," said John Jabbour of the Eastern Mediterranean office of the World Health Organization. "Poultry in the backyard was a matter of breakfast, lunch and dinner."
http://www.poultryandeggnews.com/poultrytoday/news/20080402/218170.shtml