Euro-MP blames bird flu on factory farming

Lucas to address LSE meeting on the politics of bird flu

3 November 2006

Event: Public meeting – Politics, Patents, Poultry: the global politics of bird ‘flu
Place: Rm D302, Clement House, LSE, 99 Aldwych, London WC2B 4JF
Time: TODAY, Friday November 3rd, 6.30pm

DEADLY bird ‘flu may be caused by factory farming and the international trade in live poultry products, Green Party Euro-MP Caroline Lucas will tell a London conference tonight (Friday, November 3rd).

The H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed around 100 people worldwide and was discovered in a swan in the UK in March, could mutate into a virus transmissible from human to human – and capable of killing many millions, according to scientists. But by ordering free range birds indoors governments could make a worldwide pandemic more, not less, likely, the South-East England MEP will warn.

Dr Lucas will make her comments at a public meeting organised by the Grimshaw Club, the London School of Economics’ International Relations Society, and Pandemic Action.

The debate, entitled ‘Poverty, Patents and Poultry: the global politics of bird ‘flu’, will be chaired by Jo Revill, Health editor of The Observer newspaper. Speaking alongside Dr Lucas will be Milan Rai of Pandemic Action, Sandra Mounier-Jack from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Michelle Childs, an access to medicine specialist at the Consumer Project on Technology.

Dr Lucas will argue that the development of deadly bird ‘flu could be caused by industrial farming practises such as keeping millions of birds in cramped, warm conditions perfect for virus mutation and infection – and feeding poultry and farmed fish meal made of chicken faeces and feathers.

“We know factory farming of poultry is inherently cruel, and that it results in millions of birds becoming sick or dying prematurely,” she will say.

“It seems factory farms could also pose a huge risk to human health.”

Dr Lucas is a former Vice-President of the EU inquiry into the UK’s 2001 outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease, as well as a member of the influential Environment Committee and an MEP for largely-rural South-East of England.

Now she has called on the EU to consider an outright ban on factory farming as a way of preventing the further development and spread of deadly bird ‘flu – and for the World Health Organisation to recommend free-range farming and keeping birds outdoors wherever possible.

The EU should, as a precautionary measure, halt all imports and exports of live poultry and hatching eggs, and make permanent the present temporary ban on cross-border trade in wild birds.

Drawing on research and figures published in The Lancet and by BirdLife International, Dr Lucas has said several bird flu outbreaks have been linked to factory farms – and its spread to the ‘air miles’ notched up as chicken and eggs are transported around the world.

Relatively mild strains of bird ‘flu are endemic across much of the world, Dr Lucas argues, which pose no risk to human health. But these viruses are transmitted from wild birds to poultry kept in densely-packed factory farms, creating the perfect conditions for the mutation of new forms of avian ‘flu, forms which are transmitted along trade routes – re-infecting wild birds along the way.

“The free range and backyard farming which provides much of the world’s food is principally a victim – not a vector – of the newer more deadly strains of bird ‘flu,” she will say.

“Factory farming creates the conditions under which the disease mutates into a more deadly form – and international trade is the vehicle by which it’s spread is accelerated.

“If we are to prevent another ‘flu pandemic, we must recognise that bird flu is exacerbated by the industrialisation of our food – and that the replacement of the meat factories with widespread free range farming will reduce the threat.”

Dr Lucas will add: “Instead of putting the blame for the spread of avian flu solely on backyard poultry-keepers and migratory birds, we must recognise that diverse small-scale poultry farming is part of the solution, not the problem.”

Her arguments are set out in a report co-authored with localisation and trade campaigner Colin Hines and published earlier this year: ‘Avian ‘Flu – Time to shut the ‘flu factories?’.

ENDS

Note to Editors:
‘Avian ‘Flu – Time to shut the ‘flu factories?’ is available to download from www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk or on request from Ben on any number below.

Ben Duncan
Media Officer to Caroline Lucas MEP
benduncan@greenmeps.org.uk
01273 671946 (office)
07973 823358 (mobile)

Source: Caroline Lucas MEP

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