The Flu that Stole Christmas
Has avian flu stolen Christmas? What does it mean for turkey farmers, how will shoppers be affected and is there a risk to the wider public?
The 2022 avian flu outbreak has been one of the worst on record it’s infecting a broader range of birds and seems to have outcompeted all other strains leaving only the most virulent and deadly strain in the environment. In addition, this year the virus has not gone away unlike previous years when the virus died down in winter months.
H5N1, the strain in question, can be spread directly through the air or indirectly through droppings, moving from farm to farm through contaminated equipment and vehicles, or passed on from infected birds or even by wild bird populations. This is led to huge culls of domestic poultry and nearly all of the UK’s free-range birds being kept indoors.
When birds contract H5N1 they can react in different ways. The birds may be confused, they may start sneezing, or even bleeding, or they may just stand very still. Ultimately the result is the same. A slow and painful death in a significant proportion of those infected.
Surprisingly this outbreak is much less well known amongst the general public than previous animal outbreaks. When Foot and mouth killed 6 million cows sheep and pigs, or when mad cow disease lead to the culling of over 4 million cattle the public were rightly concerned, but avian flu seems to have gone almost unnoticed. This is despite the fact that it is better documented and has been found in most continents around the world of the world, with particular effects in America and Europe.
The UK government (with regional variations in Wales Scotland and Northern Island) has responded by stating all birds must be kept indoors and all infected flocks must be culled, with a requirement that the farm be left empty for at least 12 months unless it has a deep clean. Of course, how can you deep-clean fields and woods for free-range birds?
The numbers are huge 2 million chickens and 1.4 million turkeys have been culled leaving many farms quiet and empty. This is out of the population of a billion chickens and 9 million turkeys raised each year but still a significant proportion and the danger is that not only will it affect bird populations but it could jump into human populations. On the supply side Avian Flu has led to some shortages of eggs and free-range birds.
There have been calls for a vaccination system to restore order, and trials of vaccines have begun in France. In China some vaccines are in use, but in this country, they are yet to be rolled out. The hope seems to be that the wild population will develop natural resistance (a similar hope that was first mooted when COVID pandemic struck) and develop a herd immunity although at the moment this seems a long way off.
The greatest threat is that H5N1 could cross the species barrier and become a new human pandemic. So far whilst some people have been infected (almost all of them poultry workers) there have been no human-to-human infections. However, the danger remains and it should not be forgotten that the deadliest flu of all time Spanish flu of 1914 was avian influenza that jumped species.
And what of the origins and increased recurrence of these outbreaks? Is it all part of a natural cycle or have we created the conditions for outbreaks to occur? The question needs to be asked, is this all just a symptom of the industrialization of agriculture? Is it just a coincidence that as high-intensity chicken and poultry production has increased, we have also seen a dramatic increase in avian flu outbreaks? Or is it that in today’s connected world and careful monitoring we are just more aware than ever when outbreaks occur?
So far there is no end in sight. Avian flu has had a decimating effect on domesticated poultry, wildbird and seabird populations around Britain and its coastlines.
Although for most shoppers little has changed and there are still plenty of turkeys left in the shops, the future for poultry farmers remains precarious. Constantly on the lookout for infection in their flocks, they live in fear that the next Christmas could be their last.
Dan Heppner writes regular pieces for Medium. Make sure to follow him right here He lives in the City of Worcester, England, UK with his wife and family and is writing and thinking about science, ecology and teaching.
