UK gardening - Animal Welfare Abuses to blame for Bird Flu

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Animal Welfare Abuses to blame for Bird Flu

Peter

2005-10-25, 7:21 am

Makes sense to me.

http://www.animalaid.org.uk/press/0510avia.htm

Animal Welfare Abuses to blame for Bird Flu
With the threat of a global pandemic of avian - or bird - flu
dominating the headlines, concern centres on its risk to human beings.
Clearly this is of paramount importance, but it is about time we
focused on the suffering of millions of avian victims who are being
slaughtered in attempt to stop the spread. Coverage of the mass
precautionary culling taking place throughout Asia and latterly,
Turkey, Greece and Romania, never mentions the welfare of the birds,
who are being killed in the most brutal ways. Nor the fact that it is
the intensive systems in which they are kept that are to blame for
this latest disease outbreak.

Wild, migratory birds are accused of being carriers of the disease,
yet history tells us - as with bovine TB, foot and mouth, BSE, E.
coli, salmonella, campylobacter and pig wasting disease etc - that
factory farming is the root of the problem. Modern, intensive farming
conditions are so unnatural and inhumane that diseases run rife in the
crowded, windowless sheds. Farmed animals are treated as expendable
units of production by an industry whose sole focus is maximum
production for minimum expense. The animals' health is compromised to
such a degree that a complete breakdown of resistance results. The
terrible conditions, combined with farmed animals living in close
proximity to humans - as in Asia - has caused this recent outbreak.

If we continue to treat animals in this way and exploit them past
their physiological limits to cope, then we will be forced to live
with the consequences.

So far, more than 35 million birds have been slaughtered with a total
disregard for their suffering. Country to country, chicks and adult
birds are being stuffed en masse into garbage bins and sacks in which
they are crushed and suffocate. Others are burned alive. And let's not
pretend that such rampant cruelty only happens in other countries.
During the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic, the mass slaughter of sheep,
cattle and pigs was distressing, crude and heartless.

If people are concerned about the implications to human health, or are
upset by the death scenes on TV, then they must take responsibility
for their actions. Stop eating animals and be part of solution rather
than the problem.

Read our close up on the BSE crisis - another pandemic caused by
intensive farming methods
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/campaign/farming/bse.htm

Leif Erikson

2005-10-25, 12:21 pm

Peter lied:

> Makes sense to me.
>
> http://www.animalaid.org.uk/press/0510avia.htm
>
> Animal Welfare Abuses to blame for Bird Flu
> With the threat of a global pandemic of avian - or bird - flu
> dominating the headlines, concern centres on its risk to human beings.
> Clearly this is of paramount importance, but it is about time we
> focused on the suffering of millions of avian victims who are being
> slaughtered in attempt to stop the spread. Coverage of the mass
> precautionary culling taking place throughout Asia and latterly,
> Turkey, Greece and Romania, never mentions the welfare of the birds,
> who are being killed in the most brutal ways.

No one cares. If killing the birds will prevent the
virus from spreading to the point where it can become
transmissible from human to human, they we'll kill
them, and that's that.

> Nor the fact that it is
> the intensive systems in which they are kept that are to blame for
> this latest disease outbreak.

It isn't.

>
> Wild, migratory birds are accused of being carriers of the disease,
> yet history tells us - as with bovine TB, foot and mouth, BSE, E.
> coli, salmonella, campylobacter and pig wasting disease etc - that
> factory farming is the root of the problem.

"History" tells us no such thing.

amacmil304@aol.com

2005-10-25, 6:21 pm

On Tue, 25 Oct 2005 14:55:48 GMT, Leif Erikson
<s.e.maizlisch@uta.eduu> wrote:

>Peter lied:
>
>
>No one cares. If killing the birds will prevent the
>virus from spreading to the point where it can become
>transmissible from human to human, they we'll kill
>them, and that's that.

If you said too few people care you'd be right. However, you seem not
to understand that animals kept in cramped and overcrowded conditions
become more succeptable to falling victims to disease and quite
possibly that has contributed significantly to the spread of avian
flu. But taking it a step further. The human animal is also living
in cramped and overcrowded conditions that if the disease get a hold
in inner cities and in the crowded workplaces like central London the
least of your worries will be killing the birds. One might also
consider that if this flu becomes transmissible from human to human it
is not far short of man's own doing.

>
>
>
>It isn't.

The spread of the disease has very much to do with it.

>
>
>
>
>"History" tells us no such thing.

On what basis do you say this?

I think it has a significant input.

Angus Macmillan
www.roots-of-blood.org.uk
www.killhunting.org
www.con-servation.org.uk

David

2005-10-27, 2:21 pm

On Thu, 27 Oct 2005 16:47:08 +0100, "pearl" <tea@signguestbook.ie>
wrote:

>"Leif Erikson" <notgenx32@yahoo.com> lied in message news:1130347559.881270.253060@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>
>"Faking quotes, forged posts, lies, filth, harassment."
>http://www.iol.ie/~creature/boiled%20ball.html
>
>
>?
>
>
>'... What is different about the situation today, from say 50
>or 100 years ago that has allowed these highly dangerous
>variants of H5N1 to evolve? One of the major changes in
>contemporary Asia is the on-going transformation of the
>way that poultry is produced.
>
>Modern poultry confinements have been enthusiastically
>embraced by Asian governments as the means of entering
>and competing successfully in the burgeoning global market
>for poultry and poultry products.
>...
>These variant strains of pathogenic virus are the product of
>the way we grow poultry today, in large-scale confinements,
>often with birds immobile, with lots of drugs and a monoculture
>environment. We create the ideal conditions for infections by
>multiple strains of virus, consquent emergence of new strains
>by reassortment and recombination and their immediate wide
>propagation in an immunosuppressed poultry population. One
>very revealing article in the magazine World Poultry puts it this
>way:
>
>'-Despite ongoing research by universities and biologics
>manufacturers and the efforts of regulatory agencies, the
>worlds poultry industries continue to be impacted by both
>catastrophic and erosive infections. During the current year
>[2003] either velogenic Newcastle disease or highly-pathogenic
>avian influenza has caused extensive losses in the USA, the
>Netherlands, Italy and Southeast China. Intensification of the
>poultry industry to achieve enhanced efficiency [!] has resulted
>in high concentrations of broiler and egg-producing flocks
>creating the emergence of variant pathogens and enhanced
>dissemination of viral and bacterial diseases. Reduction in the
>intensity of vaccination and a decline in the standards of
>bio-security [!], in an attempt to reduce costs in competitive
>markets have also contributed to the frequency and severity
>of disease outbreaks. Relatively mild infections including
>coccidiosis, E. coli septicemia, laryngotrachetis, mycolasmosis
>and infectious bursal disease continue to reduce growth rate,
>livability and feed conversion efficiency in affected flocks.
>Emergence of variant strains of both infectious bursal disease
>and avian bronchitis viruses add to the problems of selecting
>appropriate vaccines and programs for administration. It is
>evident that a high concentration of poultry in close proximity
>allows dissemination of variants. Within three years of the
>emergence of the Delaware variants of IBDV, virtually the
>entire industry east of the Mississippi was affected with these
>strains. There was evidence that the Delaware IBD viruses
>are now the predominant serotypes in Central America,
>requiring adjustment of both parent and broiler vaccination
>programs. The emergence of variants of existing pathogens
>and changes in the epidemiology and clinical presentation
>of poultry disease will continue as a result of intensification,
>the more extensive use of live attenuated vaccines and an
>increase in the movement of live birds within national
>boundaries and in export trade.(emphasis added)-'
>
>Dr. Frederick Leung, Associate Professor, Department
>of Zoology, The university of Hong Kong claims his
>research directly links the weakened immunity caused by
>IBDV to recent outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in
>Hong Kong. Apparently, the international experts at
>WHO and FAO have not followed up on Dr. Leung's
>suggestion. The concentration of animals with weakened
>immune systems in unsanitary conditions seems an
>inherent feature of large-scale hog and poultry
>confinement, despite the rhetoric of better hygienic
>control. As these livestock operations continue to
>spread worldwide, so will the conditions that favor the
>emergence of dangerous zoonotic diseases. Of course,
>once a new strain has been "spawned", small family
>farms with little resources for hygienic control become
>the most vulnerable.
>
>[...] the current outbreak of highly pathogenic avian
>influenza and the rise of H5N1 as an emerging public
>health threat is believed by some scientists to have
>originated in southern China in 2003, an area of rapidly
>growing 'modern' poultry production in close quarters
>with traditional family farms and widespread trade in
>live poultry and poultry products, both regionally and
>internationally.
>.....'
>http://www.fluwikie.com/index.php?n....ChickenFarming
>

There you have it.

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