- "We need to redesign food systems and we need to
get back to smaller agriculture. We're seeing lots of negative repercussions
of factory farming."
-
- OTTAWA (CP) -- The outbreak
of avian flu in B.C.'s Fraser Valley is raising questions about factory
farms, in which tens of thousands of birds are raised in a single barn.
-
- The virus that caused the outbreak is believed to have
originated with wild ducks, but farms create conditions for viruses to
mutate and become dangerous, said Earl Brown, a virologist at the University
of Ottawa. "It is high-density chicken farming that gives rise to
high-virulent influence viruses," Brown said Wednesday. "That's
pretty clear."
-
- Viruses found in wild birds generally aren't very dangerous,
he said, but they become so when they mutate in a poultry operation.
-
- "If you get a virus into a high-density poultry
operation and give it a period of time, generally a year or so, then you
turn that virus into a highly virulent virus. That's what always happens."
-
- Laura Telford of Canadian Organic Growers said the problem
of high-density farming is aggravated because all the chickens at a factory
farm are genetically identical.
-
- "I think the same principle holds for any species
- if they're all the same, they're likely to have the same susceptibilities.
It's just easier to spread the disease around."
-
- Telford said it might cost more to produce food on a
smaller scale but current practices are not sustainable.
-
- "We need to redesign food systems and we need to
get back to smaller agriculture. We're seeing lots of negative repercussions
of factory farming."
-
- Lisa Bishop, spokeswoman for the Chicken Farmers of Canada,
denied that high-density farms are a factor in the avian flu outbreak.
-
- "The fact is that once the virus is out there its
out there. It doesn't matter if you have 10 chickens on an organic hobby
farm or 10,000 in a chicken barn, that virus is going to spread."
-
- She said chickens on Canadian farms are not overcrowded,
noting that poultry farmers follow a code for animal care.
-
- "Anything that creates a better environment for
our birds basically makes our industry stronger."
-
- Bishop said there will undoubtedly be a review of all
procedures in the industry following the current outbreak.
-
- "Its easy to point fingers but at the same time
there's a lot to look at with respect to science."
-
- Debra Probert of the Vancouver Humane Society said the
viruses that arise in Asia are not due to factory farms, but to food markets
where different species of live birds are kept close together.
-
- That allows viruses to jump species, said Probert. But
she dismissed the claim that animals are protected by the animal care code,
saying it is not enforceable and many farmers haven't read it.
-
- Since factory farms have been around for years, why is
Canada only now experiencing its first major outbreak?
-
- Avian flu is a problem that has been growing around the
world for a long time, said Brown. The first case surface in the 1880s
but there have been more outbreaks in the past five years than in the previous
25, he said.
-
- There is only one known case where high-virulence avian
flu was seen outside of poultry production and that was in South Africa
in 1961 among terns, who might have been infected by domestic poultry.
-
- "All the other cases are viruses that have gotten
from wild birds into a farm situation," said Brown.
-
- "You have to say that high intensity chicken rearing
is a perfect environment for generating virulent avian flu virus."
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- © The Canadian Press 2004 http://www.canada.com/search/story.html?id=2a3317f1-664b-4060-8f8d-96ce4b646b85
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