It is a public health problem that only strengthens. The avian influenza epidemic continues its spread around the world, with all the consequences that it is known on agriculture. “The world is facing a panzootie (the equivalent of an unprecedented pandemic) of highly pathogenic avian influenza (IAHP) […] And this requires a coordinated global response, “said Godfrey Magwenzi, deputy director of the United Nations for Food and Agriculture this Monday 17 March Mary March 17 Monday March 17 Monday March 17th Director of Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization
And among all the countries concerned, the United States undergoes a particularly important resurgence among its poultry but also cattle farms. Since January 2022, more than 1,600 infection households have been reported throughout US territory, with more than 166 million birds that have already had to be killed since the start of the epidemic. And this Monday, cases of H7N9 flu has been detected in the state of Mississippi for the first time since 2017. However, this strain is much more disturbing than the most traditional H5N1, because transmissible to man.
This accelerated propagation therefore causes many concerns among breeders in the United States. And to remedy this scourge, Donald Trump’s Minister of Health, Robert Kennedy Jr., made a disconcerting proposal to say the least: let the virus circulate in order to detect if species could develop a form of resistance to the epidemic. Thus, instead of shooting birds when the infection is discovered, the breeders “should consider the possibility of letting the infection spread so that we can identify the birds and preserve those who are immune to it,” he said on the Fox News set.
If Robert Kennedy Jr. does not have any jurisdiction about agricultural subjects in his ministerial portfolio, his counterpart in this position in the United States government, Brooke Rollins, has also declared himself favorable to this proposal. “Some breeders are ready to try the experience in the context of a pilot project, while we establish a security perimeter around them, in order to see if it is possible to progress in terms of immunity,” she said to Fox News last month.
A health disaster
However, this solution is considered catastrophic by many experts in multiple respects. And starting with the health plan. Thus, each new infection presents the risk of seeing the virus mutate in a more virulent form, or transmissible towards new species, including man. In other words, if the H5N1 virus could spread in a group of five million birds, “there would be literally five million chances for the virus to be replied or mute” declared to the New York Times Gail Hansen, former state veterinarian in Kansas, saying that it was a “path to a disaster”.
This idea could also lead to real carnage within farms. Today, poultry breeders call the authorities as soon as they see signs of illness or death. If the tests prove positive for avian flu, they are reimbursed to kill the rest of the group before the virus diffuses more. However, if the breeders chose to let the virus spread on their operations, “these infections would cause very painful deaths in almost 100 % of chickens and turkeys,” said with the New York Times Doctor David Swayne, a veterinarian specializing in poultry who worked in the United States Department of Agriculture for almost 30 years. Indeed, these often high species in crazy and little airy spaces have a very low immune system, leaving them very little chances of survival in the face of avian flu. The result would be “inhuman, leading to an unacceptable crisis in animal welfare”, denounced the doctor.
Without forgetting that in view of the current reality of poultry farms in the United States, but also everywhere else in the world, it seems difficult to consider seeing certain animals develop immunity. “The way we raise poultry today does not allow great genetic variability. It is in fact the same bird,” said Docteure Gail Hansen with the American daily newspaper.
Economic repercussions
Ultimately, this track would also have serious economic repercussions. Not only because of the loss of several thousand poultry or livestock which could have been able to survive if the virus had not been ignored, but also in the increase in the procedures that this new Kennedy Jr method would represent because instead of tackling their exploitation as quickly as possible in order to iron the regulatory health tests after having eliminated all the potentially contaminated species In the end, a most likely similar result: the death of all their animals. So many days and weeks during which they could not live from their profession. This strategy “means about forty longer, more stoppage, more loss of income and more expenses,” raised to the New York Times A scientist from the United States Department of Agriculture, under the guise of anonymity.
Without forgetting that letting the avian flu spread without control could lead to immediate commercial embargoes on poultry from the United States from countries which would refuse to take the risk of seeing potentially contaminated species enter their territory, and therefore causing potential economic consequences.
To defend its proposal, the press service of the American Minister of Health said that Robert Kennedy Jr.’s comments were aimed at protecting the population “from the most dangerous version of the current avian flu, found in chickens”. The ministry also claims to want to “limit slaughter activities”, which he claims to be “not the solution”, favoring the track of a more “strong biosecurity” within the farms .. but this solution aims above all the medium and long term, and not to solve the current problem. And in this sense, the departure of the United States of certain communications channels of international organizations on avian flu, as well as the cuts in its workforce of dedicated researchers and civil servants -even if some have since been recalled -should not help the United States fall back to more scientific solutions.