Bird flu, which is spread in birds, has now spread across the world, threatening to affect food sources and burden the economy.
According to biologists, avian flu has reached all corners of the world and the first rains have spread like a local epidemic among wild birds that transmit the virus to poultry. Experts have warned that it has now become a year-round problem.
More than 20 experts and farmers on four continents say the spread of the virus in wild birds is a sign that record outbreaks of avian flu on poultry farms will not end soon, threatening the world’s food supply. Risks will increase.
He warned that farmers should treat the disease as a serious threat year-round for wild birds, instead of focusing on disease prevention efforts during the spring migration season.
Since the virus arrived in the US in early 2022, it has continued to spread through North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, unabated by the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter.
When the disease wiped out millions of chickens last year, egg prices hit record highs and, at a time when the global economy is reeling from hyperinflation, an important source of cheap protein is reaching the world’s poorest people. away from
According to experts, this virus is mainly spread by wild birds, water birds like ducks can spread it to poultry through their contaminated waste, saliva and other sources without dying from the disease.
All efforts of farmers to save poultry are failing.
In the US, Rose Acres Farms, the nation’s second-largest egg producer, lost about 1.5 million hens at its Guthrie County, Iowa, production site last year.
This was despite the fact that anyone entering the warehouses was required to shower first, said the company’s chief executive Marcus Rust.
Rust added that one of the company’s farms in Weld County, Colorado, was infected twice in about six months, killing more than 3 million chickens, adding that he believed that large ducks in nearby fields were infected. The virus in the waste was blown to his farm by the wind and infected his chickens.
The US, UK, France and Japan are among the countries that have faced record poultry losses over the past year, leaving farmers feeling helpless.
At the beginning of last year, the price of a dozen eggs in the United States was around 1.7 dollars.
Experts say spring was considered the most dangerous time for poultry in the Northern Hemisphere when wild birds migrate, but rising levels of the virus in waterfowl and many other wild birds mean poultry are now considered to be the most vulnerable. Every year there are more risks.
The virus is usually fatal to poultry and if even one bird from a farm tests positive, the entire batch is destroyed.
Vaccination of birds is not a simple solution, it can reduce the virus but not eliminate the risk, making it more difficult to detect its presence in any farm.
However, Mexico and some countries in the European Union are among those who are vaccinating or considering vaccination.
Some experts suspect that climate change may also be a factor in the global spread of the virus as it causes wild birds to change their habitats and migration routes.
