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U.S. working to stay ahead of bird flu
State, federal agencies boosting surveillance, increasing tests
TONY PUGH
Knight Ridder
PHILADELPHIA - From his poultry shop in Philadelphia's low-income Kensington neighborhood, Tony Tranh sells about 300 live birds each week, mainly to poor Asian and Hispanic immigrants.
He used to sell 600 live chickens, guinea hens, ducks and pigeons a week, but that was before the avian flu scare.
"The people are scared," said Tranh, the owner of Mac's Poultry.
Not without reason. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture temporarily closed two of Philadelphia's five live-bird markets last year after mild strains of avian flu virus were detected during routine inspections. Those strains were different from the lethal H5N1 strain and posed no threat to humans, the agency said.
But as the deadly H5N1 strain moves through Europe and parts of the Middle East and Africa, U.S. and state agriculture officials are taking no chances. They've increased avian flu testing at live-bird markets in 21 states, including Pennsylvania.
Cost of fear could be big money
The heightened surveillance comes as the United States prepares, beginning in April, to ramp up avian flu testing of wild birds that are making their seasonal migration through Alaska after wintering in Asia.The nation's $53 billion chicken industry also began a self-funded effort to test all commercial chicken flocks for avian flu before the birds are sent for processing.
Officials hope that these early detection efforts will help avert an H5N1 outbreak that could devastate the nation's health and economy.
The virus is on the move worldwide, spreading to 14 more countries in February: Iraq, Niger, Nigeria, Italy, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Iran, Austria, Germany, Greece, Egypt, India, Azerbaijan and France. It's killed millions of birds and more than 90 people worldwide.
H5N1 is spread from bird to bird and, more rarely, from bird to human. Health experts fear that it will mutate to a form that passes easily from human to human and cause a worldwide pandemic.
Ron DeHaven, who heads the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service., said the live-bird markets historically had been a weak link in the fight against bird flu because they'd been a persistent source of low-grade strains of the virus such as the recent outbreak in Philadelphia. While those strains are passed only from bird to bird, they too could mutate into more dangerous forms and move from human to human.
Unique threat of live markets
Federal law requires live-bird markets to be tested at least four times a year, but many states test more often. Pennsylvania's agriculture department leads the nation in flu surveillance, testing more than 240,000 samples a year. Tranh said state workers conducted unannounced inspections at least once a month.
Tranh, however, knows that some customers are worried. He's considered posting his shop's negative test results in the window to assure customers that his birds are safe. "My store is different," he said. "My store is clean."
But cleanliness isn't the main problem, said Richard Lobb, a spokesman for the National Chicken Council, a trade association that represents the U.S. commercial chicken industry. Live markets allow birds from a variety of farms to intermingle, increasing the chances that an infected fowl can pass the disease to other birds, store employees and customers.
"We warn the farmers who work with our industry to have absolutely no dealings with the live-bird markets," Lobb said.
The chickens used by large processors such as Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms typically are born in hatcheries and taken to the farms when they're a day old, Lobb said.
On the farms, the birds are raised in enclosed buildings, protected from contact with wildlife and humans.
U.S. chicken sales haven't been affected by the flu scare, but a recent survey by the Harvard School of Public Health found that 46 percent of people would stop eating chicken if bird flu hits the American poultry industry.
Those concerns, in part, helped spark the industry's nationwide testing program, which began in January. So far, 94 percent of the commercial farms that raise chickens for large companies such as Tyson and Perdue are participating. Those farms account for nearly all the chicken sold in the U.S., Lobb said.
Fighting From Labs
The global threat posed by avian influenza and other emerging infections may be best fought by a laboratory network modeled on the United States military's once-robust string of overseas research labs, according to a group of military-affiliated experts.
Lt. Jean-Paul Chretien of the Department of Defense's Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System said the network would draw on the success of current and former military labs by combining broad diagnostic abilities with a diverse staff. Coordination with the World Health Organization, the international community and host countries, he said, could allow the labs to address a range of disease threats.
U.S. working to stay ahead of bird flu
State, federal agencies boosting surveillance, increasing tests
TONY PUGH
Knight Ridder
PHILADELPHIA - From his poultry shop in Philadelphia's low-income Kensington neighborhood, Tony Tranh sells about 300 live birds each week, mainly to poor Asian and Hispanic immigrants.
He used to sell 600 live chickens, guinea hens, ducks and pigeons a week, but that was before the avian flu scare.
"The people are scared," said Tranh, the owner of Mac's Poultry.
Not without reason. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture temporarily closed two of Philadelphia's five live-bird markets last year after mild strains of avian flu virus were detected during routine inspections. Those strains were different from the lethal H5N1 strain and posed no threat to humans, the agency said.
But as the deadly H5N1 strain moves through Europe and parts of the Middle East and Africa, U.S. and state agriculture officials are taking no chances. They've increased avian flu testing at live-bird markets in 21 states, including Pennsylvania.
Cost of fear could be big money
The heightened surveillance comes as the United States prepares, beginning in April, to ramp up avian flu testing of wild birds that are making their seasonal migration through Alaska after wintering in Asia.The nation's $53 billion chicken industry also began a self-funded effort to test all commercial chicken flocks for avian flu before the birds are sent for processing.
Officials hope that these early detection efforts will help avert an H5N1 outbreak that could devastate the nation's health and economy.
The virus is on the move worldwide, spreading to 14 more countries in February: Iraq, Niger, Nigeria, Italy, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Iran, Austria, Germany, Greece, Egypt, India, Azerbaijan and France. It's killed millions of birds and more than 90 people worldwide.
H5N1 is spread from bird to bird and, more rarely, from bird to human. Health experts fear that it will mutate to a form that passes easily from human to human and cause a worldwide pandemic.
Ron DeHaven, who heads the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service., said the live-bird markets historically had been a weak link in the fight against bird flu because they'd been a persistent source of low-grade strains of the virus such as the recent outbreak in Philadelphia. While those strains are passed only from bird to bird, they too could mutate into more dangerous forms and move from human to human.
Unique threat of live markets
Federal law requires live-bird markets to be tested at least four times a year, but many states test more often. Pennsylvania's agriculture department leads the nation in flu surveillance, testing more than 240,000 samples a year. Tranh said state workers conducted unannounced inspections at least once a month.
Tranh, however, knows that some customers are worried. He's considered posting his shop's negative test results in the window to assure customers that his birds are safe. "My store is different," he said. "My store is clean."
But cleanliness isn't the main problem, said Richard Lobb, a spokesman for the National Chicken Council, a trade association that represents the U.S. commercial chicken industry. Live markets allow birds from a variety of farms to intermingle, increasing the chances that an infected fowl can pass the disease to other birds, store employees and customers.
"We warn the farmers who work with our industry to have absolutely no dealings with the live-bird markets," Lobb said.
The chickens used by large processors such as Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms typically are born in hatcheries and taken to the farms when they're a day old, Lobb said.
On the farms, the birds are raised in enclosed buildings, protected from contact with wildlife and humans.
U.S. chicken sales haven't been affected by the flu scare, but a recent survey by the Harvard School of Public Health found that 46 percent of people would stop eating chicken if bird flu hits the American poultry industry.
Those concerns, in part, helped spark the industry's nationwide testing program, which began in January. So far, 94 percent of the commercial farms that raise chickens for large companies such as Tyson and Perdue are participating. Those farms account for nearly all the chicken sold in the U.S., Lobb said.
Fighting From Labs
The global threat posed by avian influenza and other emerging infections may be best fought by a laboratory network modeled on the United States military's once-robust string of overseas research labs, according to a group of military-affiliated experts.
Lt. Jean-Paul Chretien of the Department of Defense's Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System said the network would draw on the success of current and former military labs by combining broad diagnostic abilities with a diverse staff. Coordination with the World Health Organization, the international community and host countries, he said, could allow the labs to address a range of disease threats.