May 18, 2006

 

New theory says fish farms responsible for spreading bird flu

 

 

New studies are pointing to fish farms and not migratory birds, as a factor in spreading bird flu worldwide.

 

Some global studies have found that migratory birds are not the cause of the current wave of bird flu outbreaks. Rather, outbreaks have been concentrated in the factory farms of China and South East Asia.

 

At present, a new theory is gaining ground that the outbreak in wild birds near Qinghai Lake may be linked to fish farms around the lake.

 

Qinghai, the province in China which recorded tens of thousands of bird flu deaths a year ago, is still having birds dying from bird flu as late as April, driving fears that the virus in migratory birds might mutate to cause a human pandemic.

 

Scientists have long cautioned that human health hazards could arise from locating fish farms close to livestock. Some researchers say that bird flu may be spread by using chicken dung as feed in fish farms, a practice common in Asia.

 

Chicken excrement can be a carrier of the H5N1 virus as the virus can survive for a few weeks in water, according to Le Hoang Sang, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City's Pasteur Institute. Le cited a case in January, when a boy died from bird flu in the Mekong Delta after catching the virus while swimming in waters in which the bodies of infected poultry had been thrown.

 

BirdLife International, a bird protection group, is calling for an investigation into the possibility that the fish in these ponds, which are fed with chicken dung, may have caused the spread of the virus. It pointed out that outbreaks have been occurring at locations in China, Romania and Croatia where there are fish farms.

 

The theory, if proven right, could throw a practice endorsed by the FAO into question.

 

FAO have been active in the development of commercial aquaculture, particularly in Qinghai Lake, and is said to have helped establish an integrated fish farm network there in the early 1990s.

 

Qinghai Lake is the largest inland lake on the Tibetan Plateau and it attracts thousands of seasonal bird populations.

 

Since the late 1980s the agricultural potential of the Qinghai Lake area was being recognized and development encouraged, resulting in a burgeoning livestock industry.

 

Due to the good quality of water near Qinghai Lake, fish farming was encouraged, both in the lake and in surrounding reservoirs.