July 3, 2012

Egyptian scientists: poultry farms in desert could eliminate bird flu 

As part of a measure to deal with Egypt's bird flu problem, scientists have recommended shifting poultry farms to the desert, away from residential areas.

Egypt's Desert Research Centre (DRC) has called on the government to support setting up poultry farms in desert regions, following the success of a pilot project to reduce avian flu transmission to humans, which ran from December 2011 to February 2012, on five small units in the Egyptian desert.

Researchers adopted procedures that helped avoid the transmission of infection, introduced indigenous desert plants into poultry diets, and evaluated varieties of poultry capable of resisting hot temperatures and drought.

Ismail Abdul Jalil, a former DRC president and leader of the research team that implemented the project, said, "With the emergence of the avian flu virus in Egypt four years ago, the idea of moving poultry farms out of residential areas was raised, as having farms adjacent or close to housing was one of the main reasons why the virus was … being easily passed from poultry to humans".

At a meeting last month to announce the research findings, the DRC called upon Egypt's Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation to lend support to implementing the project on a wider level, within smallholder farms.

Funded by a US$600,000 grant from the US Agency for International Development, the project created maps showing the location of groundwater in Egyptian desert areas, which is essential for drinking water for poultry farms, according to Abdul Jalil. The maps also showed each region's indigenous desert plants, which farmers could use to feed poultry.

Ra'afat Khedr, president of the DRC, said, "Although the cost of setting up poultry farms in desert lands is 10% more than in populated areas, the production costs could be less. This is because providing poultry with food represents 70% of the price of breeding them, so by depending partially on desert plants, the price of poultry-rearing in arid regions could decrease. Furthermore, the pilot project showed that egg production was not affected by new nutrition and diets".

Khedr pointed out that the project had undertaken a comprehensive survey of which poultry breeds could withstand desert and semi-desert conditions, such as stress and heat, in order "to list the varieties which are most productive under these hard conditions".

But Abdel El-Hakim Saad, professor of poultry nutrition at the Animal Production Research Institute, warned that underground water quality may not always be high enough for poultry breeding and would require purification.