Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching

By Michael Greger and M.D.
Published on December 1, 2007
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Healthy chickens with access to fresh air and pasture are less susceptible to bird flu and other diseases than their industrially raised counterparts.
Healthy chickens with access to fresh air and pasture are less susceptible to bird flu and other diseases than their industrially raised counterparts.
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Sneezing into your sleeve, instead of your hand, helps prevent spreading the flu virus via your hands.
Sneezing into your sleeve, instead of your hand, helps prevent spreading the flu virus via your hands.

The bird flu virus: How a deadly disease could be a hidden cost of choosing cheap meat.

Bird flu is caused by a common — and usually harmless — virus found in ducks, but in recent years highly virulent strains have emerged that have caused massive losses of chickens and other domestic birds raised for food.

When an outbreak has occurred, traditionally the virus has been stamped out by quickly destroying all infected and exposed birds. In the United States, 17 million birds were killed in Pennsylvania due to the H5N2 strain of the bird flu virus in 1983 to 1984, and 200 million birds in Eurasia and Africa have been killed due to the H5N1 strain since 2004.

Needless to say, the poultry industry is terrified of bird flu, but not just because of its avian victims: The H5N1 flu strain arising out of Asia also has killed about 200 people. The last time a bird flu virus adapted to humans, it triggered the flu pandemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people around the globe.

Experts believe that as long as poultry is being raised in stressful, filthy, overcrowded conditions, virulent strains of this virus will continue to arise. The poultry industry is eager both to protect their huge flocks from bird flu outbreaks, and to downplay the connection between the high-risk conditions in their poultry sheds and the propensity these conditions have to facilitate the emergence of deadly strains of the virus.

Bird Flu: Laying Blame

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