Beyond Factory Farming Coalition

Avian Flu - Pandemic, or mostly Panic?

There have been a lot of media reports in the past year or more about the possibility of the avian flu problems in Asia leading to a world-wide pandemic on the scale of the 1918 flu. Is the fear being generated by these reports justified? Are there interests other than public health driving the politics avian flu?

• Avian flu: Control Bird Flu by Controlling Intensive Poultry Operations

  Prevention of a world-wide flu pandemic that could kill millions is certainly a worthy cause. The question is - will outlawing outdoor poultry production save us from an AI pandemic? Or will it actually increase the risk of the disease? BFF Fact Sheet (pdf 68k)

• Wrong and Dangerous to Blame Wild Birds

  Vested interests mean wild birds are being blamed for the spread of avian flu, argues Dr Leon Bennun in this BBC “Green Room” op-ed, whereas responsibility really lies with modern farming. Demands for culling and the destruction of nesting sites threaten, he says, to bring rare species to extinction, but will do nothing to halt the disease.

• To prevent bird flu, let nature take its course

  “The inexorable increase in avian influenza hysteria is leading governments locally and internationally to consider increasingly radical measures to contain the perceived threat of a human pandemic.” Op-ed by Debra Probert, executive director of the Vancouver Humane Society and a member of the Canadian Coalition for Farm Animals.

• Health, wealth and terror

  In this provocative piece, Satya Sivaraman wonders whether the new set of International Health Regulations recently adopted by the WHO’s 192 member states has more to do with the US war on terror than with public health. (complete article)

• Massive culls of outdoor poultry is a serious threat to livestock biodiversity

  Read a Danish group’s English language pamphlet. European organizations are calling for vaccination, instead of culling, as a preventative measure.

• Health Canada’s Avian Influenza Information

• Canadian Food Inspection Agency‘s Avian Influenza Information

• Official U.S. government

  Web site for information on pandemic flu and avian influenza.

• A silver lining for Rumsfeld in the bird flu threat

  In the midst of the Bush administration’s belated response to the threat of a global bird flu pandemic, the Pentagon last week quietly issued a legal memorandum concerning Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s participation in the government’s plan to confront the danger. …The problem, it seems, is that the defense secretary is a major stockholder in Gilead Sciences, the company that holds the patent on the prescription antiviral drug Tamiflu, which is said to be the most effective medicine to prevent influenza or ameliorate the symptoms among those already infected.

2004 Avian Flu outbreak in British Columbia

• House of Commons Agriculture Committee

  report calls for an independent inquiry on CFIA handling of Avian flu crisis.
  • Agriculture Committee Meetings on Avian Flu
  • Committee Report: English - French

• Abbotsford community meeting

  An account of the BC bird cull appearing in UK's The Guardian.

• CBC Commentary

  After avian flu, can there be a different vision for the poultry industry in B.C.’s Lower Mainland? Cathy Holtslander is the organizer for a national coalition of farm, labour and environmental groups called “Beyond Factory Farming.” On Commentary, her message to farmers is decentralize or face more epidemics.

• CBC Commentary

  Crews in B.C.s Fraser Valley are moving from farm to farm slaughtering millions of chickens and other poultry in order to wipe out avian flu. Faye Smith owns a small flock of free-range chickens in Langley, about an hour’s drive west of Vancouver. She lives just outside of what she calls “the killing zone.” On Commentary, she questions the need for the slaughter.

• Intensive farming creates ideal conditions for spread of avian flu

  OP ED by Bruce Passmore, Canadian Coalition for Farm Animals

• The Avian Flu and Repercussions for the Organic Movement

  by Fred Reid, organic chicken farmer.

• Small Scale Food Processor Association of BC

  is seeking Grassroots Comments on Bird Flu Economic Impact. Heidi Trautman is working at the Sto:lo Community Futures and would like to hear concerns from First Nations and Organic stakeholders. Do you eat organic? You are a stakeholder. This is how we can get the grassroots social and ecological concerns heard, to help balance the factory farm profit concerns that usually are heard above all else. Please phone Heidi at 604-858-0009 or e-mail at trautman@dowco.com.

• Canadian Food Inspection Agency

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