As we come up on bird flu season again this year, it seems like a good time to post about the ‘other side’ of the story. We are all familiar with what’s in the news about bird flu. The basic theme is wild birds carry the infection along their migratory routes, infecting everything from chickens to cats and people. Large factory farms are vulnerable, but are also the best cared for places, as the chickens are all in one place. The biggest problem in the spread of bird flu are small farmers and individuals raising chickens outside, as these animals are difficult to track and slaughter in case of a bird flu outbreak. Chicken and eggs are safe to eat, we are told over and over! Eat more food!
What’s not frequently mentioned is the story behind these factory chicken farms. These indoor farms contain tens of thousands of birds and recently have been operated at levels of hundreds of thousands. They are very dirty places, and breeding grounds for diseases. Only a small amount of space is allocated to each bird, and their beaks are cut off to keep them from killing and injuring each other. In the case of ‘free range’, a small door on the side of the building lets the birds wander out onto a small grassy area if they choose. If they choose is the key word here, because the breed of chicken in these farms do not generally choose to go outside. The outdoor area is often not big enough, should the birds all decide to go out at the same time.
This special breed of chicken used in these farms is only suitable for being raised indoors, and one of it’s characteristics is a very weak immune system. It’s immune system is so weak, that generally at any sign of infectious disease all of the chickens must be very quickly destroyed or brought to market. Any human visitors to these farms must be carefully managed, and generally they have to be suited from head to toe in a plastic hazardous materials suit fitted with a respirator. In fact the risk of infection is so high that during bird flu outbreaks the doors on ‘free range’ farms have to be closed because the risk of a bird walking outside and contracting bird flu is so great.
It’s increasingly the view of scientists and other people involved in the bird flu issue that it is not so much of an issue of wild birds causing bird flu, but rather the factory farms are the source of bird flu and the wild birds simply spread the disease. It’s a growing travesty that people who raise small numbers of poultry outdoors are being victimized by bird flu because the birds they raise, with their normal immune systems, are the solution to the problem not the cause.
What about the farmers who operate these large farms? Last year in Europe chicken farmers were awarded substantial compensation because the bird flu scare resulted in low demand for their products. This would seem to suggest that whether or not we are even interested in these products, we still have to pay for them with our taxes, and farmers will continue to be paid for producing them.
If you are interested in reading more on this issue, GRAIN has a collection of articles here.
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