We’re Not Just Sitting Ducks...

There are some global problems we feel helpless about.  They're big and complex and seem out of our hands.  But bird flu, the highly-pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) that's been flying the globe and killing hundreds of millions of birds and now mammals as well, isn't one.

Bird flu is a problem we can do something about.

Yes, it's big and complex.  But humans, especially in British Columbia, can take action right now to stop fueling this disease.  We can stop blaming migratory waterfowl like ducks, and instead establish common-sense limits on production and consumption of chickens and eggs.

That's because the science shows clearly that lethal bird flu emerges mostly in high-volume chicken farms, like the kinds in BC's Fraser Valley.  Even when innocuous versions of bird flu originate in wild birds, those viruses mutate and spread mostly in crowded bird barns.

Yet we're acting like sitting ducks, waiting for the next round of bird flu.

That's what I'm telling elected officials here in British Columbia.  Having had the opportunity to speak with Premier David Eby, Health Minister Adrian Dix, and Jobs/Innovation Minister Brenda Bailey, at recent election events, I found that they all want to hear more about avian flu.

I'm therefore sending letters to each of those leaders, plus a succinct backgrounder on the — optimistic — topic of how we could control and minimize avian flu.

Here are the main points I'll make:

• Milllions of BC poultry have died due to avian flu in the past three years of the current outbreak.
• Yet this disease is a challenge that goes way beyond agriculture and food.
• Wild bird populations have been badly hit by bird flu, as have more and more mammals.
• Despite a recent lull in poultry-barn infections, avian flu will be back.
• BC has suffered a shockingly high share (55%) of Canada's avian flu-related bird culls — although BC produces only 12-15% of Canada’s poultry and eggs. 
• Peer-reviewed scientific research shows that high-volume chicken production is a large and preventable factor in the rise and spread of this disease.  Intense commercial poultry operations in countries like Canada are the most common settings for run-of-the-mill viruses to morph into lethal ones.
• Statements from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, refute the idea that wild birds are the main cause of avian flu among cattle and poultry in the US. These scientists’ genomic and epidemiological analyses point the finger at the day-to-day operations of industrial chicken farming, including movement of livestock, people, vehicles, and other farm equipment from one premises to another.
• My own research shows that BC is especially vulnerable to avian flu, based partly on its large number of factory poultry farms situated close to the each other along the Fraser Valley.
• There are practical steps BC could take, drawing on experience from European jurisdictions, to reduce its vulnerability to avian flu.  It will take vision and courage, and a cross-ministerial effort. But it could help us avoid the next pandemic, and make our food systems healthier and more sustainable too.

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