The indiscriminate culling of wild birds must be stopped because the H5N1 virus is being spread through the "ideal breeding ground" provided by commercial poultry, said a consumer group.

Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) president SM Mohamed Idris said the poultry and the egg trade should be monitored and regulated.

"The government should investigate how factory farms and their by-products such as animal feed and manure spread the lethal virus."

He said international experts have issued warnings over the threat of the H5N1 strain exploding into a human flu pandemic which could claim millions of lives.

"The government's measures to prevent the spread of the H5N1 virus will further industrialise the poultry sector which is the ideal breeding ground for highly pathogenic bird flu like the H5N1 strain," he said.

He was commenting on the massive culling of the ayam kampung (free range or backyard chicken) in several states, with Penang facing the latest outbreak.

Slow death

Expressing concern, Idris said the small producers will be driven out and their livelihood threatened by the precautionary step of banning slaughter of live poultry in all wet markets.

"This will eventually destroy local poultry diversity which is more resilient to diseases and epidemics."

He said Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin and Perak Menteri Besar Mohd Tajol Rosli Ghazali had even suspected migratory birds to be the cause of the spread of the disease.

Perak's poultry industry is valued at RM700 million a year, making it the country's largest.

"The MB explained that the culling of birds, chickens and ducks located within a one-kilometer radius of the affected areas was necessary so that the virus does not spread to commercial farms.

"This assumes that bird flu is a problem of wild birds and backyard poultry practices, not modern poultry farming," he said, refuting the exclusion of commercial poultry's role in spreading the virus.

Citing a recent report published by GRAIN, an international organisation dealing with agricultural issues), he said the focus of preventive measures must be on the poultry industry which is the root of the problem.

Wild victims

He said bird conservationists have found that wild birds were victims and not vectors of the highly pathogenic strains of bird flu which develop in poultry most likely exposed to milder strains that live naturally in wild bird populations.

"In crowded poultry operations, the wild virus evolves rapidly towards more pathogenic and highly transmissible forms capable of jumping species and spreading back into wild birds which are defenseless against the new strain.

"In this sense H5N1 is a poultry virus killing wild birds, not the other way around."

Similarly, he added, bird flu does not evolve to highly pathogenic forms in backyard poultry where low density and genetic diversity keep the viral load to low levels.

"Backyard poultry are the victims of bird flu strains brought in from elsewhere. When backyard poultry farms are separated from the source of highly pathogenic bird flu, the virus seems to die out or evolve towards a less pathogenic form.

"Migratory birds and backyard chickens are not effective vectors of highly pathogenic bird flu. The virus kills them, but is unlikely to be spread by them."

In Malaysia, said Idris quoting GRAIN, the mortality rate from H5N1 among ayam kampung is only five percent.

"In the Penang outbreak, six dead ayam kampung were found. In Kampung Changkat Tualang, Perak, nine chickens died. This indicates that the virus has a hard time spreading among small scale chicken flocks.

"In Laos, which is surrounded by infected countries the H5N1 outbreaks have occurred in the nation's few factory farms, which are supplied by Thai hatcheries."

He said the only cases of bird flu in backyard poultry, which account for over 90 percent of Laos' production, occurred next to the factory farms.

In Kampung Changkat Tualang, the Acting Director-General of the Veterinary Services Department revealed that the affected village was near a chicken and duck farm.

Scientific findings

Quoting from the report, he said that 'the evidence we see over and over again from the Netherlands in 2003 to Japan in 2004 and to Egypt in 2006 is that lethal flu breaks out in large scale industrial chicken farms and then spreads'.

"In Nigeria, the outbreaks earlier this year began at a single factory farm owned by a cabinet minister which was distant from hot spots for migratory birds but known for importing unregulated hatchable eggs.

"In India, local authorities say that H5N1 emerged and spread from a factory farm owned by the nation's largest poultry company."

As recently as November 2005, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said that "extensive testing of clinically normal migratory birds in the infected countries has not produced any positive results for H5N1 so far".

"In fact nearly all wild birds that have tested positive for the disease were

dead and, in most cases, found near to outbreaks in domestic poultry."

Idris, quoting senior FAO officer Juan Lubroth, said it was very easy to blame wild birds and the migration of birds because nobody was responsible.

"It is possible that wild birds may introduce the virus, but it is through human activities of commerce and trade that the disease spreads."

The World Health Organisation states that a possible medium for the spread of bird flu is industrial chicken feed through 'poultry litter' which includes faecal matter, feathers, bedding as well as chicken meat.

"Bird flu can survive in bird faeces for up to 35 days. Yet nothing is being done to tighten regulations or monitoring of the feed industry."

And there are reports from the World Organisation of Animal Health of local chickens surviving the H5N1 virus, added Idris.