Falcons, chickens, & avian flu, From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

 

Falcons, chickens, & avian flu

 

Falconing, along with factory farming, cockfighting,

bird-shooting, wild bird trafficking, and keeping caged songbirds,

has emerged as a factor in the increasingly rapid global spread of

the deadly H5N1 avian influenza.

As the March 2006 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press, 92

humans in seven nations had died from H5N1. More than 30 nations had

experienced H5N1 outbreaks since 2003, 14 of them since February 1,

2006. Hit, in chronological order, were Iraq, Nigeria,

Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Iran, Austria,

Germany, Egypt, India, France, and Hungary.

More than 200 million domestic fowl have been killed in

mostly futile efforts to contain H5N1, according to the United

Nations Food & Agriculture Organization--almost entirely because of

the persistence of practices long opposed by the humane community.

Falconing became implicated when five trained hunting birds

died from H5N1 at a veterinary clinic in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Saudi

agriculture ministry officials confiscated and killed 37 falcons who

were kept at the clinic.

" The virus might have been introduced by illegally imported

falcons from China and Mongolia early in the season, " the moderators

of the International Society for Infectious Diseases posted to the

society's ProMED online bulletin board.

ProMED zoonotic disease moderator Arnon Shimshony called for

" enhancing the alertness of authorities responsible for control of

international trade in avians, with special attention to captive

birds.

" Earlier H5N1 incidents related to such trade have been

recorded in Taiwan, Belgium, the U.K., and probably elsewhere, "

reminded Shimshony, who is a member of the Koret School of

Veterinary Medicine faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

" The report of H5N1 from falcons in Saudi Arabia and their

possible infection by smuggled falcons is especially notable when

coupled with an earlier incident involving H5N1-infected eagles who

were smuggled from Thailand to Belgium, " said Joseph P. Dudley,

Ph.D., chief scientist for the EAI Corporation, a Virginia-based

private security firm.

" U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service investigations have shown that

there is a long-standing and well-established illegal global trade in

falcons and other raptors, and that as long ago as 1984, individual

falcons caught from the wild could command prices of $10,000 to

$50,000 from buyers in Europe and the Middle East, " Dudley

continued. " Nonprofit organizations have estimated that the illicit

trade in falcons from Central Asia to the Middle East and Gulf states

may involve as many as 14,000 or more birds annually, and say that

individual falcons of the most sought-after species can bring prices

of $500,000 or higher. News reports from October 2004 said that

Russian police had intercepted and confiscated a consignment of 127

Saker falcons worth an estimated $4.5 million from a commercial

aircraft at a Russian military air base in Kyrgyzstan. "

Agreed World Birdwatch editor Richard Thomas, " There is a

lot of smuggling of Sakers from Central Asia to the Middle East, and

what are they likely to be fed? I seem to recall that the

H5N1-infected mountain hawk-eagles who were smuggled from Thailand to

Belgium were believed to have been fed infected chicken before the

flight. "

Qatar, neighboring Saudi Arabia, banned traffic in falcons

on February 1. Other nations paid little attention to falconing--but

falconing is practicing throughout Central Asia and the Middle East,

and may be the missing link that enabled the dominant strain of H5N1

to move laterally across the region to Europe, without spreading to

the northern and southern reaches of migratory bird routes.

In terms of numbers of birds involved, routine commerce in

poultry dwarfs all other possible H5N1 vectors.

Nigeria banned poultry from residential areas in Lagos, the

capital city, on February 16, and banned interstate poultry

movements on February 21, after H5N1 appeared in six of the 36

Nigerian states within less than a week.

The Nigerian outbreak, unlike European outbreaks which might

have been transmitted by migratory birds, almost certainly was

caused by poultry trading.

" I would never rule out wild birds, " Wildlife Conservation

Society veterinary epidemiologist William B. Karesh told Washington

Post staff writer David Brown. " But I think we have to look at the

most probable routes. The most probable would be poultry. "

" There is no question that migratory birds are playing a

role, but they are not the main players, " agreed ecologist Peter

Marra of the Migratory Bird Center at the National Zoo. Marra told

Brown that more attention should be given to the movements of poultry

and birds in the pet trade, because " That is where you can actually

do something about it. "

" We think someone may have imported or smuggled in

contaminated birds, " Nigerian agriculture minister Adamu Bello told

the Lagos Guardian.

Noted Brown, " China, Nigeria and the United Nations Food &

Agricultural Organization signed a $22.7 million agreement in March

2003 to have 520 Chinese agriculture experts, including poultry

technicians, help Nigerian farmers. Nigeria also imported live

birds from China until January 2004, when the trade was banned due

to H5N1 outbreaks in Asia. "

Bello acknowledged at a news conference that despite the ban,

" Birds come every day from China and Turkey. "

 

#1 migratory species

 

A similar situation contributed to the resurgence of H5N1 in

Indonesia, now second only to Vietnam in numbers of human victims.

As of February 22, 2006, H5N1 had hit 161 communities in 26

of the 33 Indonesian provinces, Agriculture Ministry director of

health Syamsul Bachri said. Indonesia killed 16.2 million chickens

in 2003, he added, or about 9% of the national flock, without

lastingly containing H5N1.

" Almost no region in West Java is free from H5N1, " Fatimah

Resmiati of the West Java health office told the Jakarta Post,

blaming the fast spread of the virus on poor control of the live

poultry traffic.

" Globalization has turned the chicken into the world's number

one migratory bird species, " said BirdLife International director of

science Leon Bennun. " Movements of chickens around the world take

place 365 days a year, unlike the seasonal migrations of wild

birds, " Bennun noted.

However, H5N1 rapidly crossed several regions where there is little

legal commerce in poultry.

" While the overt and covert movements of commercial poultry

clearly carry risks, " reminded ProMED moderator Martin Hugh Jones,

" we should not forget gladiatorial activities. Cockfighting was the

background to the Newcastle disease epidemics in the U.S. Southwest

in 2002-2003, " as well as a key factor in spreading H5N1 throughout

Southeast Asia in 2003-2004.

Paraphrasing Bahrain SPCA pres ident Dr Khalil Rajab,

Geoffrey Bew of the Gulf Daily News reported on February 13 that

" Dogs and cockerels are being brought to Bahrain from Southeast Asia

to take part in illegal fights, thought to be coming across the King

Fahad Causeway from Saudi Arabia or slipped past customs officers at

Bahrain International Airport. "

Rajab also mentioned illegal commerce in Southeast Asian birds as pets.

Daniel Foggo and Matthew Campbell of The Times of London on January

22 disclosed that although cockfighting was banned in Britain in

1835, " Villages in northern France where cockfighting is still

permitted have become a magnet for day-tripping British devotees of

the illegal bloodsport, " an obvious potential vector for H5N1 now

that infected birds have been found in that part of France.

H5N1 reappeared in Malaysia in early February for the first

time since 2004. Selangor and Federal Territory Poultry Traders

Association adviser Dr Lee Chong Meng suggested that the outbreak, in

Gombak, might have resulted from villagers smuggling in fighting

cocks from Thailand--which caused the last known outbreak, in Kota

Baru.

 

 

--Merritt Clifton

 

--

Kim Bartlett, Publisher of ANIMAL PEOPLE Newspaper

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