At a time when the planet is plagued by the COVID19 pandemic, bird flu is on the rise.
Many cases of severe avian influenza have recently been reported to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), with those in charge saying that the virus is spreading again and again quickly.
What is bird flu?
It is a type of flu caused by viruses, which adapt to the body of birds. The strains are divided into two types, depending on their transmissibility. The most highly contagious type is H5N1. Eight types have been found to 'pass' to humans. The rate of infection of poultry birds is very low, while pigeons are not infected and do not transmit the virus.
Avian flu can rarely affect humans if they come in contact with animals, their feces, sleeping area or while preparing infected poultry for cooking.
In January 2017, the World Health Organization had issued a global alert for avian and avian influenza with the type H5N6. Cases have been reported in almost 40 countries around the world since the beginning of November 2016. The then new strain (H5N6) had hit Asia, where genes had been "exchanged" between four different viruses.
What is happening now
An outbreak of bird flu was also recorded in the last month of 2020 (the strain was H5N8) on a farm in southern Russia where 101.000 chickens had collapsed and died. The remaining 900.000 on the farm were killed. Of the 105 workers, five women and two men were infected. The World Health Organization had been notified, however the planet was at the peak of the pandemic and attention was paid elsewhere. A few months later, an outbreak of the H5N6 virus broke out and claimed the lives of 24 people, 48 of whom had been infected on a Chinese farm.
Poultry farming was put on alert and all the outbreaks that followed led to the killing of tens of millions of birds.
China reported 21 H5N6 human infections with bird flu in 2021. It was more than those that had occurred throughout 2020. An outbreak also occurred on a farm in the South Korean city of Chungcheongbuk-do, at about 770.000 poultry. All the animals were killed.
In Europe, Norway reported an outbreak in the Rogaland region in a swarm of 7.000 birds, Belgium put the country at increased risk and called on breeders to keep poultry indoors from Monday 15/11 - flu in wild geese near Antwerp.
France did something similar, while the Netherlands had done it since October. Early November was declared a bird flu prevention zone across the UK. By law, poultry farmers are required to follow strict biosecurity measures after killing a swarm that was the epicenter of an outbreak in Dundee, Scotland.
And this is the fault of humans - not animals
According to the Guardian, the WHO suspects, but has no evidence that Covid-19 is associated with intensive breeding of animals, on farms that are little controlled in Southeast Asia. Major epidemics that have been recorded in the last 30 years are associated with intensive livestock farming. Scientific evidence has shown that stressful, crowded living conditions cause the emergence and spread of many infectious diseases and act as an "epidemiological bridge" between wildlife and human infections.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), “Avian influenza viruses evolve into a large, diverse gene pool of viruses. A pathogen can become a super-infectious agent of the disease: in monocultures involving mass breeding of genetically identical animals selected for high food usurpation, an emerging super-infectious pathogen will spread rapidly within a swarm or herd. That is, some farms that aim to make a profit and do not fully comply with protocols become reservoirs of disease.
Governments and industry often blame wild birds for transmitting bird flu through migration routes. However, the evidence that farm-intensive farms "are potential mixing pots for young, deadly viruses" is growing.
Source: news247.gr