Crisis before a pandemic: When poultry culls imperil human health

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Amy L. Becker, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, 420 Delaware St. SE, MMC 263, Minneapolis, MN 55455, 612.626.6770, becke336@umn.edu

Background: Behind the growing fears that the H5N1 virus could spark a human influenza pandemic lies a hidden calamity for public health: the impact of mass poultry culling. At least 200 million birds have died from the H5N1 virus and concomitant culling. Many of those birds came from household flocks, and may have represented a major proportion of a family's available protein, a necessary revenue stream, and a literal extension of individual and community cultural practices.

Methods: (1) Literature review of peer-reviewed and grey literature on the role of the culled poultry in selected developing countries where H5N1 has been found, including: Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, China (Hong Kong), Turkey, Egypt, India, and Nigeria. (2) in-depth key actor interviews with 4-6 experts in the field – including from the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization, the World Organization for Animal Health and appropriate NGOs – on key issues and methods to improve human safety and food security (3) synthesis of analysis into a publishable paper with recommendations to minimize nutritional, economic and cultural impact while optimizing public health and reducing the opportunities for a pandemic virus to emerge.

Learning Objectives:

- Recognize the public health impact of mass poultry culls on human health,

- Identify people at risk of suffering significant health setbacks as direct or indirect result of culling poultry to prevent H5N1’s spread

- Define the public health impacts, including the direct loss of protein, the loss of remuneration for a valuable commodity;

- List cultural norms that foster human-poultry contact

- Articulate challenges to reducing human H5N1 exposure by shifting cultural norms
- Describe potential interventions to improve human safety and lessen pandemic risk

Keywords: Emerging Diseases, Policy/Policy Development

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation

Avian Influenza: Lessons Learned During a Year of Global Concern

The 134th Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 4-8, 2006) of APHA