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http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\04\24\story_24-4-2006_pg7_10
?Modern poultry farming responsible for bird flu?
Monday, April 24, 2006
Daily Times Monitor
LAHORE: The rise of the highly virulent form of avian flu (H5N1) is down to the industrial animal production around the world, reported The Network For Consumer Protection in Pakistan (website: thenetwork.org.pk).
The non-government organisation said the mechanical mode of production led to adverse genetic changes due to a smaller gene pool, which had caused the immune level of poultry to drop. ?Chickens are crammed in small coops and cages in modern poultry farms or in long sheds housing thousands of birds - therefore outbreaks of infections can easily spread,? it said. These rearing methods weaken the birds? natural immune system making them highly susceptible to diseases, it added.
Intensive farming methods advocate the use of high doses of antibiotics in chicken feed to solve this problem, said the NGO?s website, adding that growth hormones were also used to increase the speed of the chickens? growth. It cited a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists that showed livestock consuming eight times more antibiotics by volume than humans.
?The use of the growth-promoting hormones may also affect the birds,? said the NGO. Some scientists believe that growth promoters affect immunity and the effect of vaccines by diverting energy. Energy that could have been used for enhancing immunity levels is diverted to promote growth.
Experts think that backyard chicken and other birds are falsely referred as the disease?s carriers and attention is being diverted from commercial poultry methods - the main culprit because of the way it reared the hens and actually helped the outbreak spread globally.
The NGO said the deadly H5N1 strain?s epicentre were factory farms in China and Southeast Asia and - while wild birds can carry the disease for short distances - its main vector had been the self-regulated transnational poultry industry. ?Governments and international agencies are following mistaken assumptions about how the disease spreads and amplifies,? it said. Authorities are pursuing measures to force poultry indoors and further industrialise the poultry sector, it added. ?In practice, this means the end of the small-scale poultry farming that provides food and livelihoods to hundreds of millions of families across the world.?
?Modern poultry farming responsible for bird flu?
Monday, April 24, 2006
Daily Times Monitor
LAHORE: The rise of the highly virulent form of avian flu (H5N1) is down to the industrial animal production around the world, reported The Network For Consumer Protection in Pakistan (website: thenetwork.org.pk).
The non-government organisation said the mechanical mode of production led to adverse genetic changes due to a smaller gene pool, which had caused the immune level of poultry to drop. ?Chickens are crammed in small coops and cages in modern poultry farms or in long sheds housing thousands of birds - therefore outbreaks of infections can easily spread,? it said. These rearing methods weaken the birds? natural immune system making them highly susceptible to diseases, it added.
Intensive farming methods advocate the use of high doses of antibiotics in chicken feed to solve this problem, said the NGO?s website, adding that growth hormones were also used to increase the speed of the chickens? growth. It cited a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists that showed livestock consuming eight times more antibiotics by volume than humans.
?The use of the growth-promoting hormones may also affect the birds,? said the NGO. Some scientists believe that growth promoters affect immunity and the effect of vaccines by diverting energy. Energy that could have been used for enhancing immunity levels is diverted to promote growth.
Experts think that backyard chicken and other birds are falsely referred as the disease?s carriers and attention is being diverted from commercial poultry methods - the main culprit because of the way it reared the hens and actually helped the outbreak spread globally.
The NGO said the deadly H5N1 strain?s epicentre were factory farms in China and Southeast Asia and - while wild birds can carry the disease for short distances - its main vector had been the self-regulated transnational poultry industry. ?Governments and international agencies are following mistaken assumptions about how the disease spreads and amplifies,? it said. Authorities are pursuing measures to force poultry indoors and further industrialise the poultry sector, it added. ?In practice, this means the end of the small-scale poultry farming that provides food and livelihoods to hundreds of millions of families across the world.?