There is a specter in Europe: of a virus that threatens health. You would think that all forces would unite to eradicate this virus, but nothing could be further from the truth. No, this is not about omikron, but about the bird flu virus. Bird flu has never been so widespread in Europe. The consequences are already great, the danger of a new pandemic is downright frightening. So we have to show that we have learned from the covid pandemic.
animal cruelty
The current measures, such as monitoring, culling sick and healthy animals, transport bans and an obligation to be kept in a cage are not sufficient. The control is lost. Not only are these interventions ineffective, they are also far from ethical. Last week it happened again in the Netherlands: as a precaution, 225,000 animals were gassed. The animal suffering, the financial damage and the consequences for farmers are taking on dizzying proportions.
Although avian flu can pass from birds to humans, the risk to humans is still low. However, the fear of dangerous mutations is growing: in the case of corona, the virus also spread from animals to humans and frequently mutated into more or less pathogenic variants. Bird flu has already spread from animals to humans. People have already died. If the virus ‘learns’ to spread from person to person, the disaster will be incalculable.
For years, experts have pointed to bird flu as a prime candidate to cause the next pandemic. With covid we got a taste of what that can mean.
vaccinate
What to do? A ban on poultry farms in wetland areas would help because wild waterfowl in particular carry bird viruses and that is where the risk of transmission is greatest. But the virus is spreading in other places as well. That is why we must move to vaccination of animals as soon as possible. If covid has learned anything, it is that if the political will is there, vaccines can be developed and deployed quickly.
Until now, this political will has been lacking because of exports to countries that refuse meat and eggs from vaccinated animals. The economy took precedence over everything else. But now the shore turns the ship. Recently, the agricultural and horticultural organization LTO also expressed support for vaccination.
But, just as vaccinations are not a complete solution for corona, they are not for bird flu either. So more is needed: a different way and scale of poultry production. It is clear that stables with tens of thousands of genetically identical animals pressed together are a playground for a virus that can flare up and mutate in them. We saw this recently with the coronavirus, when millions of minks were gassed. It is also clear that it is an illusion to think that these types of stables can be hermetically closed off from the outside world. Research from 2018 shows that 37 of the 39 highly pathogenic avian flu viruses are sourced from industrial poultry farming.
Poultry Production Review
We will have to drastically rethink the way poultry is ‘produced’. By keeping chickens on a smaller scale – fewer animals, fewer farms and less close together – by creating conditions that increase the resilience of the animals, through greater welfare, through greater genetic diversity and with an eye for ecological relationships with the landscape in which poultry farming is embedded.
And yes, that also means reducing the consumption of chicken meat and eggs. This will not solve the immediate problem of the present, but the impact and risks can be greatly limited in the future. That takes a lot, but the enormous disruption of Covid shows that it is worth it. It is literally vital.
And now is the time. The new Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality has already been tasked with drastically reforming Dutch agriculture, together with the new Minister for Nature and Nitrogen. This is necessary to comply with regulations on nitrogen and water quality. And to meet the European target to have a quarter of agriculture organic by 2030 (currently only 4 percent). And so there are more good reasons for reform, including improving animal welfare.
What the minister will have to watch out for, however, is to regard problems as isolated pain points to which only technical plasters need to be applied, in order to be able to continue with business as usual: an air scrubber in the stable against nitrogen, a remedy in the cow fodder against methane, an obligatory cage against bird flu. However, the problems facing the minister are closely related and can only be brought to a real solution in conjunction – at system level. The same goes for bird flu.
Dirk-Jan Verdonk works for World Animal Protection and the Animal Coalition, including Stichting Wakker Dier, Eyes on Animals, Varkens in Nood, Dier&Recht, Stichting Vier Voeters and Compassion in World Farming Netherlands.