STOP FACTORY FARMS = STOP BIRD FLU

Here is a link to info published by Australian poultry industry about the different aspects of poultry production

http://www.chicken.org.au/page.php?id=6

These general practices, such as spreading new litter (feces-food) on top of old when bringing in new chicks, are now described as inadequate by recent study linked in this thread

Also includes description of free-range standards as more humane.

Good to see that the Indian minister  was very wisely warning about
the spread of AI via the poultry trade.

However at no stage did he  say Factory farms were the main cause nor was he  unwise enough to  call for their abolition.

Even the much cited IBIS study does not call for the abolition of factory
farms , rather as an organisation concerned for the welfare of wild birds
it tries to deflect blame for the spread of AI to factory farming.

Here is a link to the org that publishes Ibis

http://www.bou.org.uk/bouintr.htm

I doubt that these scientists would "deflect blame" to factory farming, as you claim, and I can't imagine how blaming factory farms helps wild birds, or deflecting blame helps any birds. But you are certainly welcome to post your unsupported opinion here, it helps us understand you :)

Glad to post the the link to poultry production info :) to illustrate that the problem is concentrated production (crowding birds together), as shown in studies linked from this thread, and illustrated at Barnard Matthews, etc.
    

Ross, I doubt Dr. Niman (or anyone here) benefits from you misrepresenting his work, so if you can point to anything in that post of yours that supports your claim that it is "clearly showing how wild birds have carried the virus around the world", please do, so that we are not forced to conclude you are a troll.
    

KP-

This last article is not a smoking gun as you appear to be gloating. 

 

Moreover, factory farms are not going anywhere until a reasonable alternative is composed and implemented.

 

And if I were you, and I know I am speaking for "more than" some of us here at AFT, we wish, rather than you continuing to scream "FIRE-FACTORY FARMING" in the theater LONG after it has since burnt down to the ground - why don't you take that NOW WASTED energy and apply it to something useful to all of us - AND EVERYONE?

 

Like finding a REASONABLE ALTERNATIVE to factor farming instead of screaming about it as I mention above??

 

 

- Lazaras 

kparcell wrote: Ross, I doubt Dr. Niman (or anyone here) benefits from you misrepresenting his work, so if you can point to anything in that post of yours that supports your claim that it is "clearly showing how wild birds have carried the virus around the world", please do, so that we are not forced to conclude you are a troll.

lazeras

I track the news as part of my work and I find this particular thread boring but useful. Of course I don't object to you posting your opinions, but forgive me if I don't expend time on them.
    

Kind of pointless guys,One track mind.Wasted time here!!!

kparcell wrote: no trace of BF in wild birds of Europe ......... Dutch let poultry outdoors as bird flu fears ease 13 Apr 2007 09:59:38 GMT Source: Reuters AMSTERDAM, April 13 (Reuters) - The Dutch Agriculture Ministry will lift an order on April 15 to keep commercial poultry indoors, which was introduced to prevent a possible bird flu spread, the ministry said on Friday. The measure was put in place in early March to prevent contact between poultry and wild birds in the Netherlands -- Europe's second-biggest poultry producer after France -- during the migration season in the spring. "Poultry can be allowed outdoors because the monitoring of wild birds in the Netherlands and the European Union showed no traces of the diease," the ministry said in a statement. Veterinary experts believe that migratory birds represent a serious risk in the spread of the deadly H5N1 avian flu virus. The virus originated in Asia and is known to have infected nearly 300 people in 12 countries since 2003, killing more than half of them. The Netherlands, a top world poultry exporter, has never reported H5N1 in commercial poultry but it was hit by H7N7 avian flu in 2003, which led to the culling of 30 million birds, about a third of the poultry flock, as well as one human death.

Factory farming enquiry:

Since this thread has peeked my interest, I decided to look about for some more data to add here. For one, poultry is the #1 agricultural product of West Virginia, and the recent outbreak of Avian in the northern part of the state represents a significant event in the U.S.

This link :
http://www.factoryfarming.com/poultry.htm

With a growing number of consumers switching from red meat to poultry, the chicken and turkey industries are booming. In addition to the expanding U.S market, poultry companies are also benefiting from expanding markets around the world.

Record numbers of chickens and turkeys are being raised and killed for meat in the U.S. every year. Nearly ten billion chickens and half a billion turkeys are hatched in the U.S. annually. These birds are typically crowded by the thousands into huge, factory-like warehouses where they can barely move. Each chicken is given less than half a square foot of space, while turkeys are each given less than three square feet. Shortly after hatching, both chickens and turkeys have the ends of their beaks cut off, and turkeys also have the ends of their toes clipped off. These mutilations are performed without anesthesia, ostensibly to reduce injuries that result when stressed birds are driven to fighting.

Today's "broiler" (meat) chickens have been genetically altered to grow twice as fast and twice as large as their ancestors. Pushed beyond their biological limits, hundreds of millions of chickens die every year before reaching slaughter weight at 6 weeks of age. An industry journal explains that "broilers [chickens] now grow so rapidly that the heart and lungs are not developed well enough to support the remainder of the body, resulting in congestive heart failure and tremendous death losses." Modern broiler chickens also experience crippling leg disorders, as their legs are not capable of supporting their abnormally heavy bodies. Confined in unsanitary, disease-ridden factory farms, the birds also frequently succumb to heat prostration, infectious diseases, and cancer.

Like meat-type chickens, commercial turkeys also suffer from serious physical malformations wrought by genetic manipulation. In addition to having been altered to grow quickly and unnaturally large, commercial turkeys have been genetically manipulated to have extremely large breasts, in order to meet consumer demand for breast meat. As a result, turkeys cannot mount and reproduce naturally, so their sole means of reproduction is artificial insemination. And similar to broiler chickens, factory-farmed turkeys are prone to heart disease and leg injuries as a consequence of their grossly-overweight bodies. An industry journal laments that:

Turkeys have been bred to grow faster and heavier but their skeletons haven't kept pace, which causes 'cowboy legs'. Commonly, the turkeys have problems standing and fall and are trampled on or seek refuge under feeders, leading to bruises and downgradings as well as culled or killed birds.

Chickens and turkeys are taken to the slaughterhouse in crates stacked on the backs of open trucks. During transport, the birds are not protected from weather conditions, and a percentage of the birds are expected to die en route. Birds freeze to death in winter, or die from heat stress and suffocation in warm weather. It is “cheaper” for the industry to transport the birds in open crates without adequate protection, despite high mortality rates. Upon arrival at the slaughterhouse, the birds are either pulled individually from their crates, or the crates are lifted off the truck, often with a crane or forklift, and the birds are dumped onto a conveyor belt. As the birds are unloaded, some miss the conveyor belt and fall onto the ground. Slaughterhouse workers intent upon 'processing' thousands of birds every hour have neither the time nor the inclination to pick up individuals who fall through the cracks, and these birds suffer grim deaths. Some die after being crushed by machinery or vehicles operating near the unloading area, while others may die of starvation or exposure days, or even weeks, later.

Birds inside the slaughterhouse suffer an equally gruesome fate. Upon entering the facility, fully conscious birds are hung by their feet from metal shackles on a moving rail. Although poultry are specifically excluded from the federal Humane Slaughter Act (which requires that animals be stunned before they are slaughtered), many slaughterplants first stun the birds in an electrified water bath in order to immobilize them and expedite assembly line killing.

However, stunning procedures are not monitored, and they are often inadequate. Poultry slaughterhouses commonly set the electrical current lower than what is required to render the birds unconscious because of concerns that too much electricity would damage the carcasses and diminish their value. The result is that while birds are immobilized after stunning, they are still capable of feeling pain, and many emerge from the stunning tank still conscious.

After the shackled birds pass through the stunning tank, their throats are slashed, usually by a mechanical blade. Inevitably, the blade misses some birds, who may still be moving and struggling after improper stunning. Proceeding to the next station on the assembly line — the scalding tank — the birds are submerged in boiling hot water. Those missed by the killing blade are boiled alive. This occurs so commonly, affecting millions of birds every year, that the industry has a term for these birds: "redskins."

comment : found that informative.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_farming

Industrial agriculture, also known as factory farming, refers to the industrialized production of livestock, poultry, fish, and crops. The methods deployed are geared toward making use of economies of scale to produce the highest output at the lowest cost. The practice is widespread in developed nations, and most of the meat, dairy, eggs, and crops available in supermarkets are produced in this manner.

Arguments against

Opponents say that what they refer to as factory farming is "cruel",^[8][9][10] and it poses health risks, and causes environmental damage.

In 2003, a Worldwatch Institute publication stated that "factory farming methods are creating a web of food safety, animal welfare, and environmental problems around the world, as large agribusinesses attempt to escape tighter environmental restrictions in the European Union and the U.S. by moving their animal production operations to less developed countries." ^[11]

Arguments and claims include:

• Disease — Overpopulation may lead to disease. In natural environments, animals are seldom crowded into as high a population density. Disease spreads rapidly in densely populated areas. Animals raised on antibiotics are breeding antibiotic resistant strains of various bacteria ("superbugs").^[12] The use of animal byproduct feeds, including bone meal, directly resulted in the spread of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, which has affected over 180,000 cattle and 170 people.

• Air and water pollution — Large quantities and concentrations of waste are produced.^[13] Lakes, rivers, and groundwater are at risk when animal waste is improperly recycled. Pollutant gases are also emitted. Dust, fly, and odor problems can be created for people living in the immediate region.
• Cruel — Crowding, drugging, and performing surgery on animals. Chicks are debeaked hours after hatching, commonly by slicing off the beak. Confining hens and pigs in barren environments leads to physical problems such as osteoporosis and joint pain, and also boredom and frustration, as shown by repetitive or self-destructive behaviour known as stereotypes.^[14]
• Resource overuse — Large populations of animals require a commensurately large amount of water and are depleting water resources in some areas.^{[citation needed]}
• Destruction of Biodiversity — Industrial farming wipes out large areas of land to house a single variation of one species, usually foreign to the region, thus eliminating the entire local ecosystem.
• Tracking — With the intensive farming system it is difficult to track the source of food, let alone food borne disease, back to particular animals. Sometimes food purchased on one side of the country may have been produced on the other side. Hamburger meat may contain the meat of as many as 1000 cows.^[15] This causes concern among consumers concerning the origin of foods and among government officials concerning the origin of disease. The National Animal Identification System is one proposed way the USDA is attempting to remedy this problem. With "traditional" farming techniques this problem is eliminated because the consumer can buy directly from the producer. ^[16][17]This can lead to other problems, however, as food purchased directly from farmers is not processed and undergoes no official quality evaluation.

comment: IMHO - we run up against a basic paradox of wanting humane treatment for animals we are going to kill and then eat during their preparation for such a fate.  There of course is no argument that this a tougher environment than life in the chicken coup for eggs versus an occasional chicken causality for dinner.

Now in the increased need for efficiency, that is production, and then also some fierce additives to the feed of chickens and poultry - it must be assumed that some of what is fed to the chickens goes into our water table through feces and into us as we eat the poultry.

Some viruses and bacteria may be destroyed by cooking, but other chemicals such as arsenic and a host of additives may survive the cooking or ordeal and wind up in our blood streams.

here is another interesting link on factory farming

http://www.factoryfarming.org.uk/whatis.html

I found this informative and educational as well as having the spin of this being disadvantageous for numerous reasons.

Here are a few questions for you.

1) Is factory farming the diametric opposite of free range farming.
2) Which country out of perhaps 40-60 use factory farming by what percent and is there a pattern. Is it geographically feasible due to the topography of certain climates and terrains to free range farm.
3) How expensive would it be to convert present main farms in the areas you are suggesting change? What type of legislation for tax dollars and farmer incentives would be needed to make this doable.
4) Have you personally contacted any lobbyists or spoke to legislature directly and how has it gone?
5) If you were put into a position at a factory farm - such as one of our farms in West Virginia that is currently housing poultry - would you be able to offer effective direction in conversion and management of a free range turkey or chicken housing facility.

This is not a boring topic. But it is one which bear clarification in terms of the amount of danger this present to spreading Avian as opposed to free range where birds may be directly exposed to wild fowl which in some area are endogenous carriers of the disease.

Is this a situation akin to Indonesia where families may be asked to destroy their birds, and the compensation may be so poor that doing so will actually result in the collapse of the economy of the family?

I am interested in learning more and hearing opinions on the the realistic possibility of changing the current factory farming system. How approachable are the farms themselves on this issue? What incentives are there to make this a better choice. If this is to be a legislated law which demands compliance, how enforceable will this compliance be and what funding would be needed, personnel hired, and departments augments to do this.

IMHO all forms of animal breeding for slaughter including the slaughter procedures is dependent on public desire to eat meat products. The more public who do, the greater supply there must be and at a certain break point can free range methods 1) provide security of infection from wild birds by Avian and 2) equal the production sufficiently to produce enough meat?

Medclinician,

 

Furthermore, the following post from below, completes en toto my concerns on the issue.  I would like it to stop there, but every time I read this thread KP is attacking and condescending to someone of opposite viewpoint - even factual truths - as I am sure you have seen.

 

I do not like bullying - especially by neophytes to the facts.

 

-Lazaras

 

Please see!

 

*  *  *  * 

 

KP-

 

This last article is not a smoking gun as you appear to be gloating. 

 

Moreover, factory farms are not going anywhere until a reasonable alternative is composed and implemented.

 

And if I were you, and I know I am speaking for "more than" some of us here at AFT, we wish, rather than you continuing to scream "FIRE-FACTORY FARMING" in the theater LONG after it has since burnt down to the ground - why don't you take that NOW WASTED energy and apply it to something useful to all of us - AND EVERYONE?

 

Like finding a REASONABLE ALTERNATIVE to factor farming instead of screaming about it as I mention above??

 

 

- Lazaras 

medclinician wrote: It is very difficult, but when I criticize something, I try to attempt to present some sort of workable alternative.

Recent expansion of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1: a critical review

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2007.00699.x

Abstract
Wild birds, particularly waterfowl, are a key element of the viral ecology of avian influenza. Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus, subtype H5N1, was first detected in poultry in November 1996 in southeast China, where it originated. The virus subsequently dispersed throughout most of Asia, and also to Africa and Europe. Despite compelling evidence that the virus has been dispersed widely via human activities that include farming, and marketing of poultry, migratory birds have been widely considered to be the primary source of its global dispersal. Here we present a critical examination of the arguments both for and against the role of migratory birds in the global dispersal of HPAI H5N1. We conclude that, whilst wild birds undoubtedly contribute to the local spread of the virus in the wild, human commercial activities, particularly those associated with poultry, are the major factors that have determined its global dispersal.

Factory farms in Asia blamed for pandemic

http://www.warmwell.com/06ap8factoryflu.html

Avian Influenza: Flu Factories

http://www.agobservatory.org/headlines.cfm?refID=87909

Bird flu: a bonanza for 'Big Chicken'

The bird flu crisis rages on. One year ago, when governments were fixated on getting surveillance teams into wetlands and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) was waving the finger of blame at Asia and Africa's abundant household poultry, GRAIN and other groups pointed out that large-scale industrial poultry farms and the global poultry trade were spreading bird flu -- not wild birds nor backyard flocks. Today, this has become common knowledge, even though little is being done to control the industrial source of the problem, and governments still shamelessly roll out the wild bird theory to dodge responsibility. Just a few weeks ago, Moscow authorities blamed migratory birds for an outbreak near the city -- in the middle of the Russian winter.

A more sinister dimension of the bird flu crisis, however, is becoming more apparent. Last year, we warned that bird flu was being used to advance the interests of powerful corporations, putting the livelihoods and health of millions of people in jeopardy. Today, more than ever, agribusiness is using the calamity to consolidate its farm-to-factory-to-supermarket food chains as its small-scale competition is criminalised, while pharmaceutical companies mine the goodwill invested in the global database of flu samples to profit from desperate, captive vaccine markets. Two UN agencies -- FAO and the World Health Organisation (WHO) -- remain at the centre of this story, using their international stature, access to governments and control over the flow of donor funds to advance corporate agendas.

http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=22

Kparcel ,
 
  You have posted both of those stories previously (  on 30/Mar/07 and
23/Feb/07 )  and one was first published in 2006  .

One  wonders  why  you suddenly feel the need to repost these stories ?

I appreciate the thoughtful comments above. I don't have any reason to believe that my opinion matters, but imho it is plain common sense that factory farming is not inevitable and an H5N1 pandemic is not inevitable: ban concentrated production until we complete a global vaccination program. I believe that anything less than this might sentence many to death, so this issue has my attention even though my main focus is on disaster preparedness for sustainable community. I network with some people who look to me for BF info because they are dedicated to other issues and don't have time to stay abreast of current threats and my work requires me to stay informed.

I respect Dr Niman's work because others do, not because I'm qualified to judge its quality - I'm not. However, there are currently more than 800 strains of HPH5N1, and Dr Niman's concerted effort has turned up relatively few strains associated with continued infections of wild birds. I find that to be consistent with all the latest science.
    

Reminder: Better treatment of animals could help combat climate change

http://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show.jsp?action=showRelease&searchText=false&showText=all&actionFor=645730

In reference to Kparcels most recent post


http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/529070/

The above newswire report was in fact based on the study below  , which was a study of the genetic changes in the virus NOT a study of birds or their movements.


http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/13/5/713.htm

What the researchers actually said was ......


The broad dispersal of these isolates throughout these countries during a relatively short period, coupled with weak biosecurity standards in place in most rural areas, implicates human-related movement of live poultry and poultry commodities as the source of introduction of influenza (H5N1) into some of these countries. The virus' presence in wild birds leaves open the alternative possibility that migratory birds may have been the primary source, with secondary spread possibly caused by human-related activities.

All of what the researchers said is both consistent with what we know
about spread of the disease via trade as well as with what we know
about spread via wild birds.

It is also  consistent with the weak bio-security standards of
virtually all small poultry operations and larger scale operations in
countries with poorly regulated poultry industries.


Certainly they have not made nor attempted to make a case against
production of poultry in well managed large scale farms.

Professor Salzberg, the lead author of the new genetic study linked above, clarifies his comments about migration (from private correspondence):

"Scientific papers have to be written very carefully. Some of the movements of the flu might be due to migratory birds, while other movements don't seem to correspond to what we know about migrations. So we can't rule out migratory sources, but we can't rule out human movements of poultry either. This wasn't the main thesis of our study so we can't make definitive conclusions. From all the data I've seen - including data not in our study - it seems highly likely to me
that humans are responsible for much of the spread of bird flu. I think migratory birds spread some of it too, though."

Steven L. Salzberg, Ph.D.
Horvitz Professor of Computer Science
Director, Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
3125 Biomolecular Sciences Building
University of Maryland / College Park, MD 20742
Phone: (301)405-9611 Email: salzberg@umd.edu
Web: http://cbcb.umd.edu/~salzberg